A New Dawn on the Horizon
by TheGamerMarine76
Summary: After earth was plunged into a dark, and dead abyss by the Faro Plague, Elisabeth Sobeck and her team created GAIA to create a future for they were the last original bloodlines after the plague, and before the eleuthia children. But what if they weren't the only ones to survive the longest after the plague. Story takes place after the entire Horizon Zero Dawn story line.
1. Chapter 1:A new beginning

**Hello world this is my first about the punctuation errors if there are any, and all I hope is that you enjoy. :)**

 **And overwatch fanfic maybe this to rewrite since I messed up the first one.**

 **Disclaimer:I DO NOT OWN HORIZON ZERO DOWN NOR OVERWATCH.**

* * *

One year has passed passed since HADES was destroyed. Aloy sat next to Elisabet Sobeck - the non-clone her which she likes to think is her mother- while she sat there. It was fun to come here, and talk to Elisabet even though she passed away a long time ago. Sometimes Aloy would think that she was crazy, just talking to the dead woman.

Aloy held the small artifact Elisabet had in her hands. The artifact was a mini-globe necklace. She came here every once every two weeks when she had the time.

 _HADES was dead, what now?,_ She thought to herself.

After a moment of thinking she noticed that the sun was coming down.

 _Better get back home before the path is blocked by more machines.,_ She thought.

She stood up, and put the mini-globe back in her pouch.

"Bye Elisabeth, I'll see you again ", She said.

She walked out the gate, and hopped on her strider mount, but before she went her way she gave the old place one more look as if it was gonna disappear in front of her, then she rode away.

She managed get back to Nora lands before the path was overrun by more machines. She took a short walk to one of the trading to get some food. She ate only a piece of meat since the Final Battlewith the Eclipse. She can't even remember when she ate before that.

After her quick bite she then trekked back to the house on the mountain where she was raised by Rost.

She got in closed the door, jumped onto the bed, and instantly dozed of. Since the massacre at the _Proving_ she was only able to catch a few hours of sleep.

* * *

300 miles north from the Sacred land is a subterranean complex which blast proof doors never opened, and insides completely untouched for about a thousand years .

Inside the bunker is a cryo pod, but unlike the hundreds of similar cryo pods this one cryo pod was still intact and fully functioning. Inside the pod was a man not just any man. This man was asleep in this pod for over a millenia.

The main power generator of the facility was beginning to fail, so the main computer initiated an emergency protocol to open the only functioning cryo pod.

A man steps out of the cryo pod-clearly freezing-and tries to stand up. He failed a few times but eventually got up. He looked around and realized where he was then began searching the room for any supplies.

He found some clothes, and a put the clothes on and took a flashlight he found on a table nearby. Before he left he searched the room some, and found a Focus device in a small box.

 _This'll help me around here_ , He placed the small triangular device on his right temple. After searching he left the room. The focus helped him open the doors around the parts of the facility, and access data terminals.

"Where the hell is everybody?", He said to himself.

The place was dead empty. Everything was where it should be though.

The halls were dim, and the only things illuminating it is the holographic lights emitting from the walls.

He stumbled upon a cryo tube similar to the one he came out of, but the glass was covered in cold mist. He walked closer and rubbed of the mist from the glass, and saw a human skeleton. Startled he jumped back, but leaned back in, and looked at the skeleton for a moment, then at the data pad.

 _Error:Cryo sequence malfunction,_ is what it said.

"What the hell happened to this place?"

He left the area and started looking for the main control eventually found it and started looking for anything he can take information from.

Later he found a datapoint, and scanned it with his Focus. It showed him a log about putting the facility on total lockdown, keep the subjects in cryo, and keep the facility in complete radio silence to prevent the Swarm from detecting and destroying the facility.

"The swarm caused everyone to leave?", He said to checked the datapoint for the date, but the rest of the data was corrupted."I need to get out of here." He said.

He then looked at a map of the facility, and left.A minute later he arrived at the armory where he started picking out his gear. He took a black shirt, black cargo pants, black boots, dark green winter jacket with a hood, black tactical gloves, and a dark grey beanie .He also took a heavy caliber assault rifle, a pistol, and rucksack which he filled with extra ammo, medical stuff, survival gear for all terrain, a bunch of different types of explosives, and a small device to help override computers, and machines.

He took a holo-map, and holo-projector, then set the coordinates for the nearest populated area.

"Right where should I go now," The map loaded." Then."

He put the bag on his back, and headed for the blast doors. He arrived at the gate, and looked for the access panel. A minute of searching, he found nothing, when he rubbed the dust of the wall he managed to find it. He pulled the panel from the wall, and input the access codes.

Lights and alarms started to come to life, and the blast door slowly it opened. A gust of cold air rushed into the facility, and the outside was revealed. Once the door fully opened he walked, and saw a sun which he hasn't seen in awhile. The rays shined down on him, and it felt good really good.

He took a deep breath, and started had a long way to walk.

* * *

 **This chapter has been updated since I saw a lot of errors.**

 **And the man's gear is the survivalist gear from Tom Clancy's The Division except I changed a few things.**

 **Anyway thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoy. :)**


	2. Chapter 2:A Stranger in the New World

**Just to make sure:Disclaimer:I DO NOT OWN HORIZON ZERO DAWN NOR OVERWATCH.**

 **OVERWATCH IS OWNED BY BLIZZARD ENTERTAINMENT, AND HORIZON ZERO DAWN IS OWNED BY GUERRILLA GAMES.**

 **Anyway Enjoy. :)**

* * *

Aloy rose up from her bed, and held her head hurt a little bit, but she forced herself needed to hunt for some more was part of her got into her gear headed out.

Before she could get a out of the town area she was greeted by high matriarch Teersa.

"Good morning Aloy!" Teersa greeted.

"Good morning"

"Where are you of to now," The matriarch asked.

"I'm just going to hunt for some more materials."

"Oh okay, but you don't bother to eat?"

"I think I'll pass," Aloy replied.

"You can't simply take on a machine without any energy you know"

Aloy thought about was gonna be a long day of hunting, tracking, and killing machines for parts, and the extra fuel would've been helpful.

"I guess a quick bite wouldn't hurt." She said.

"Good follow me"

Aloy followed the old matriarch to a place where they could eat.

They talked about the current situations on the land, while they ate.A few minutes later she she walked across the town area she was greeted by simple hi's, hello's, and good morning's to Aloy - all she has achieved were miracles to the tribe, and according to their beliefs they should've just knelt down and start worshiping her, but she made it clear that she wasn't going to allow herself to be worshiped, so the people respected that, even though she was their savior, anointed, or a holy figure they would still treat her as if she was just another regular brave they would see everyday.

Aloy was now in the wilds running over to one of the broadhead sites to jack ride for the real hunting grounds which was far north - she was hunting shell walkers for their components.

She arrived at the broadhead site, hid in the tall grass, scanned the pack of machines, and studied their movement patterns; there was one broadhead that was walking straight toward her, she waited for a moment then…..She leapt out of cover, and began to override, the blue glowing wires covered the body of the machine, and the override was complete.

She climbed on top of the broadhead, set her bow on the side of the machine, and sped away.

* * *

The man from the facility, was lying asleep under a didn't have a tent with him, and the sun was quickly setting, so he gathered some sticks, and dead leaves, and made a makeshift shelter under a pine tree.

His dinner last night consisted of a fox which he ran up to and stabbed since he didn't want to use up ammo, and tea he made from herbs he found and boiled water in a stainless steel cup.

He got up from his makeshift leaf bed, and rubbed his eyes, he then crawled out of his shelter and stretched his back, and sat down and ate what's left from last night, and collected his stuff, and he left.

He continued to his present course which was south to the city of Denver; he checked his compass to make sure he heading the right way, and continued.

A few minutes passed later he heard a noise that sounded machine like, but animal like at the same time, he had no idea what it was but what he does know is that whatever it was, it was coming closer, and closer, he scrambled, and took cover in a bush, he began to hear feet of some large animal stomping slowly on the ground.

A minute later he found out that the thing making the noise was something that blew him was a giant robot animal thing with four legs, a large yellow container in the center of its body, a pair of mandibles that can most likely cut a car in half, and it looks kinda like a rhino with the snout looking like a pyramidical battering ram.

Its lower mandible had grinders inside of them, and it has like anti-gravity devices on its side.

It was at least 7 feet tall, and 10 meters long maybe even longer.

He saw more of the same machines following behind, he saw 3 no 4 no...5 more of the same machines following behind - it was a herd of them.

He stayed in the bush staying absolutely quiet while scanning the machines with his focus, the machine looks heavily armored, and really intimidating, he didn't want to face-off with it - he had armor piercing rounds, but it would be like trying dent steel plating, with a stick if he tried.

He waited until the machines have cleared the area before coming out of the bush.

He continued to his course until he ended up in the side of a valley, he saw was something that made his eyes widen, and his jaws drop to the ground; the valley was filled with machines of all shapes, and sizes, there were giant longneck machines with a radar dish as a head, giant robot dinosaurs, herds of smaller machines running around, and giant robotic birds dominated the sky.

"Aww hell no", He mumbled stupidly."My week just keeps getting deeper, and deeper."

He saw big robots before, but not at this scale.

"I am most definitely high," He said.

 _Maybe its all that stuff they pumped into me, cuz those are some extreme side effects,_ He thought

He jumped out of his thought, and continued walking.

* * *

Later…

Aloy was nearing her destination so dhe set her body on autopilot and drowned in her thoughts - she was mostly thinking about what to do next, she had nothing else to do besides hunt machines, and support her tribe - the threats were exterminated, and the proving has long over - she basically did all she had to, at least she thinks she has done everything.

She would later regret not paying attention because a sawtooth on standby saw her, and began running after her.

The sawtooth came out of nowhere, and before Aloy could react it was too late, the sawtooth clashed onto the side of the broadhead, and Aloy was thrown off, her bow was still attached to the side of the now downed broadhead, she tried to stand up, but her leg hurt like hellfire - she must've broken it when she was thrown off, she tried to crawl to her bow, but the sawtooth regained its composure, and started to walk closer to her, she used all her strength to stand up, and swallow the pain; she took out her lance, and got to a defensive position while slowly retreating back.

She tripped while slowly retreating back, her mind raced to find a way out, but she tripped, and fell back down, and this time she dropped her lance, she kept retreating back, but met a side of a mountain, and she was pinned down, at that point she saw her life flashing before her eyes, and time seemed to slow down.

She began to cry for help, but realized it wasn't going to do she closed her eyes, and awaited her faith.

* * *

The man was walking through the forest seeking cover from those giant robot birds he saw, he projected his course to his destination through his focus while he hiked through the forest, when he heard another noise, but this time it sounded a lot like a human; like a person crying for help.

He jumped to his senses, and tried to locate where the noise came, when he ended up at the edge of the forest next to a clearing, and beyond that was a mountainside, he hid behind a boulder, and looked out for the someone or something that made the noise.

He was looking out when he saw a red haired girl - wearing weird clothes, and probably in her early twenties - pinned down at the mountain side, while a robotic tiger slowly closed in for the kill, he could throw a frag grenade, but the blast would not only kill the machine, but also kill the girl, so he resorted on a sticky EMP grenade, he pulled the pin, measured the angle of trajectory, and threw the grenade; it landed perfectly on the side of the machine.

Aloy still had her eyes closed, when she heard a loud bang, she opened her eyes and the sawtooth stood completely still, the red lights in its eyes were darkened, and it simply wasn't doing anything, the sawtooth fell flat to ground, and a was a man ran on top of it, and pointed the end of a metallic tube onto the sawtooths head, she heard smaller consecutive bangs like a pop-pop-pop which caused her to cover her head with her hands.

The smaller bangs stopped, and she opened her saw a man clearly panting wearing some weird clothes that she's never seen before, and holding some sort of weird weapon.

"Okay I think it's dead", The man saw Aloy, and said:"Hey, are you alright"

"No, my leg.I think it's broken" Aloy replied.

The man hopped of the sawtooths head, and knelt down next to Aloy, and inspected her leg.

"Damn right it's broken; in fact it's dislocated.I can relocate it though", The man said.

"Do what you have to do"

"Alright then", The man put an arm on Aloys leg, and another on her shoulder."Ready?" Aloy nodded."Alright, this is gonna hurt" He pulled Aloy's leg, and there was a cracking noise, she screeched from the sudden searing pain in her leg."Hold still!" The man pulled out a needle attached to a clear tube with some fluid inside, and inserted the needle into Aloy's leg and pumped the fluid in.A second later the pain was gone."This stuff will block out the pain, but your leg is technically broken for another few hours though so you're gonna have to lay there for another few hours until the drugs take effect" The man said - Aloy couldn't understand some of the words the man said.'

 _What are drugs?,_ Aloy thought.

"Thanks for the help" Aloy said.

"No problem" He said."Hold on i'm gonna call in a medivac" He took out his long range communicator, but when he tried to find a signal he couldn't find one."Dammit stupid forest area", He muttered."Looks like you're gonna have to stay with me until your leg heals so I can get us back to Denver, and after that you're heading to the hospital there, where you'll be taken care of, and be served hot coffee while I'd have to report this back at HQ - girl almost gets eaten by robot sabertooth, this is going to be great news for the media, but not to the general especially when he finds out that I killed another one of his billion dollar machines - he's gonna chew me like gum" He said.

Again more words Aloy couldn't like denver, hospital, coffee, HQ, and almost everything about him is weird, from his clothes to the way he talks.

She has a theory on where he came from, but dismissed it since it was impossible.

"Um...okay?", Aloy said, while giving him a puzzled look."You got a name?", She asked.

"The names:Jackson, Jackson Smith, but you call me Jack, how' bout Yours?", He asked.

"Aloy," She said.

"Aloy...Thats a nice name."

"Thanks," Aloy smiled.

"Well it's gonna be a long you want to sleep go ahead, I'll stand guard." Obviously Aloy didn't fully trust him just appeared out of nowhere, and almost everything about him spelled 'strange' to Aloy, and the fact he's carrying something Aloy assumed was a weapon of some if it wasn't for him she would've been ripped to shred by that sawtooth, and he did fix her if he did want to kill her, he would've let her get ripped to shreds and cleanup the mess later.

"I think I'll stay awake," Aloy to make sure.

"Alright then," Jack said, and got to a 'watching over' position.

* * *

 **This chapter has been updated since one of you reported missing word, and broken sentences; well its because the Docs Manager is not reading all the words, and it tends to delete some of the words, mostly after, and before a dot the words would disappear, guess FanFiction likes only one big sentence.**

 **Ill try to find a way to fix it thou, but if I don't then y'all have to adjust to bad punctuation.**

 **I cant promise any of you a chapter a week, but I can promise I finished you might have to wait a while for that.**

 **But anyways I hope all of you enjoy, mabuhay, and peace out my friends. :)**


	3. Chapter 3:Not who he seems

**Punctuation errors imminent , so if you have OCD please leave right now.**

 **But anyway Enjoy. :)**

* * *

Jack and Aloy waited at the mountainside for about four hours had their backs flat onto the looked at his watch, stood up, took his rifle, and gear, and slung it behind his back.

"The drugs should've taken effect by to stand up," He stood up with ease; her leg now feeling like it was never broken.

"Whoa," Aloy said."That's new."

"Like it was never ?", Jack nodded."Now c'mon, night is knows what...things lurks around here at the dark."

Aloy gave raised him an eyebrow, and said:"Alright, just hold on, I got to get my stuff"

"Make it quick"

Aloy began looking for her weapons.A minute later she retrieved her bow, and lance, but when she put her finger on her right temple, she noticed that her focus was gone. _Must've fallen off from the impact._ Aloy thought, and hustled to find the small , hands, and eyes to the ground; searching desperately for the tiny triangular saw it only a few meters away from the dead broadhead, ran over, and picked it up.

"Got it," She put the device back on her right temple, and the holographic sphere surrounded her again.

"Too expensive to lose, ain't it?" Jack looked at him, and he had the same blue circle around his suspicions grew a little the Eclipse's focuses had a color yellow, but his was a color blue same as hers.

"Yeah, yeah too expensive to lose," Aloy dumbly played along.

"Yup, now come on, we gotta hustle." Jack nodded, and they left.

A few minutes later they were still on the broke the silence.

"So why were you out here alone in the forest anyway?" Jack asked.

"I was out hunting", Aloy replied.

"Hunting?"

"Yeah"

Jack looked at her for a moment. _Isn't hunting illegal around these parts?,_ Jack .Now he has to take her to the hospital for examination, rat her out to the police, create a media feeding ground, and get chewed by the general.

"Hunting really." He examined her for a moment."That's a nice choice for a hunting weapon.A bow and arrow, but you could've picked a better style of hunting attire, like a ghillie suit, it would make it harder for the animals to spot you," Jack said.

Even more unfamiliar words, Aloy gave him a confused look again.

"Right...but where do I get this ghillie suit?", She asked.

"Well you could head over to the sporting goods store, and buy one for about fifty bucks, but if you don't wanna buy then you could take an old jacket or raincoat, and cover it with dead leaves, its either those or you painting over your skin." Jack said.

Aloy just blinked at was never more speechless in her had no idea how to respond to what he just said, mostly because of the fact that she didn't understand anything he said.

"Umm...okay", Aloy blankly said.

They continued walking down the path, but it started to get dark.

"Its getting should camp out for the night," Jack suggested.

"Yeah, we should," Aloy said.

They laid their things down, and set up camp, Aloy gathered some sticks for a fire, and Jack tied his knife to a stick.

"What are you doing?" Aloy asked.

"Watch," Jack said, and tightened, and secured the rope tying the knife to the stood, and Aloy followed him.

"I learned this trick from my grandfather when I was young, now you stay here, and observe," Jack said, and climbed up a tree while Aloy hid behind a bush.A minute later, and there was a boar approaching, Jack waited for the boar to be directly over him, and dropped down, the knife entered the boar's back, and killed it instantly, he picked up the boar, and removed his knife from its back.

"Looks like we have dinner," Jack carried the dead boar to camp, skinned it, and they had food for the put the meat on a stick, and over the fire.

After the meat was cooked they took their piece of the boar, and began to eat.

"So what do you do for a living?" Aloy asked Jack.

"Me?Well i'm a soldier," Jack said.

"A soldier." Aloy said.

"Yeah.I'm one of the few real soldiers left, until the robots came, and took most of our jobs; that cost the government since the friendly robots can just be hijacked, and turned against us, the government regret replacing the humans with machines, and now with the lack of trained men the government established operation enduring victory, which is basically sending untrained civilians to their death's, its the country's last hope if not the only hope; more blood will have spilled until project zero dawn is a success, only then the massacre will stop." Jack said.

"What do you soldiers do anyway?", Aloy asked.

"We serve, protect, and defend this country with honor till death," Jack said.

"Why do you do it?"

"What?"

"Why do you do risk your life fighting for people you don't care about, or if those people treated you badly before?" Aloy asked.

"Let's look at it this have a home, and a family within your someone or something comes along, and threatens you, your home, and your you let them, or would you step in to defend the ones you care 's the duty of a soldier to defend the homeland and people within it, whether it's taking someone else's life or losing your the other thing is that your country men are also your are one unique country, and one unique family; honor it, and serve it Aloy." Jack said.

"That's one heck of a speech," Aloy said sarcastically.

"I know right, but you get the point of what I just another thing is that you should participate in enduring victory.A person your age, and already going out hunting by herself is outstanding y'know, and the country needs you more than ever, just as much it needs me, and that means less time for home time," Jack said.

"Hmm...alright I guess," Aloy said.

"Well you should get to sleep, we still have a long way to cross tomorrow."

"Yeah," Aloy said, and laid down on her makeshift leaf pillow.

Aloy closed her eyes, tried to sleep when it hit her; all the things Jack just said pointed to out to the theory she made up when she came across theory may be accurate, but she'd have to make sure.

"Umm Jack"

"Yeah?" Jack said tiredly.

"What year is it?" Aloy asked.

"2064, did you forget?"

Aloy was shocked at what he just said.

* * *

 **I hope you guys enjoy, and i'm sorry about the punctuation errors, I got to purposely make errors in punctuation since the docs manager isn't working very good.**


	4. Chapter 4: Old One

**Hey guys!Punctuation errors are imminent so please be gentle with the reviews.**

 **Had to do it or words would disappear.**

 **Anyway enjoy. :)**

* * *

And there it was, Aloys 's theory is 100% she with a living, breathing, talking Old One, as in the people people wiped out after the Faro Plague

She had suspected since he does not look like anyone from around here, but it's impossible-not really since there was one lying next to her, but that doesn't explain how he got where he is right now.

She had another problem, and that how was she would break it down to him that the old world was gone, and everyone he knew was gone, she doesn't know how he would react, he might be devastated to know that his love ones were long dead, the things he know long gone, he'd be overwhelmed or go crazy or something.

She decided to go to sleep, and worry about it tomorrow.

* * *

Dawn came, and Aloy woke up.

She looked over to her right, and saw that the fire was burnt out, and, Jack still deep asleep, while letting out a snore every few seconds, Aloy chuckled a little, and stood up.

She picked up her things, walked over to Jack, and knelt down next to him.

"Jack wake up," She said, but got no response.

"Jack wake up" She tried again, this time giving him a nudge.

"It's too damn early, five more minutes please," Jack said through his sleep, and rolled over to the other direction facing away from Aloy.

Aloy stood up, and put her hands on her waist.

"WAKE UP JACK!" Aloy yelled, and Jack freaked out, and tried to stand out.

"I'm...I'm up i'm up," Jack said as he tried to stand up; Aloy chuckled a little on how he started to panic, and how he tried to stand up.

"What is it?" Jack asked.

"Wake up soldier, we still have a long way remember?" Aloy said.

"Right, but...jeez did you have to do that?" Jack asked.

"Well I could've left you, but I couldn't do that," Aloy said with a smile, and Jack just gave her a look.

"Fine give me a minute to pick my stuff up," Jack said, stood up, and began to pick things up.

A minute later Jack picked up his things, and walked over to Aloy.

"Alright let's go," He said, and they were on their way.

* * *

As they were walking Aloy remembered the tragic truth.

Jack was still an Old One even if he doesn't know that, and what hurts Aloy is the fact that she has to break it down to him, which would hurt him more maybe even beyond just hurting him.

He could be devastated, broken, or something, then he ends up dead on the bottom of a cliff somewhere.

It's something Aloy wasn't prepared to do, but she has to do it or Jack would end doing something bad anyway.

While Aloy was lost in thought Jack stopped her, and froze dead still.

"What is it?", Aloy asked.

"I heard something.I think something is following us." Jack checked how many rounds he still has in his magazine, and cocked his rifle.

Aloy took out her war bow, and loaded an arrow.

The surrounding was dead quiet, you can hear a pin drop, Jack turned around to cover his back, and began to scan his point-of-view, while Aloy covered the front

Jack heard rustling in the bushes to his left, and trained his rifle, Aloy did the same, and pointed her arrow at the bushes.

The rustling continued until someone emerged from the bush, and startled Jack, and he hit the person's face with the stock of his rifle, and the person fell to the ground.

"FREEZE!" Jack yelled at the man."DONT MOVE!"

Aloy caught a glimpse of the man's face, and noticed it was just his friend Varl.

Varl held his face in pain and said, "Aw damn, alright calm down man," He said.

"You can put your weapon down tough guy, he's friendly," Aloy told Jack.

Jack pointed the barrel away from the man, and said, "Well you can tell your friend here that I could've killed him for jumping at us."

Aloy helped varl up.

"Whoa, it's cosplay fest ain't it?," Jack said, and Aloy just gave him a look.

"Why were you following me Varl?", Aloy asked.

"You?What am I invisible?", Jack sarcastically said.

Aloy scoffed at him.

"You've been gone for too long, the matriarchs thought you've been eaten by a sawtooth or something," Varl said, and Jack cleared his throat, and looked at Aloy.

"Oh sorry' bout that, thought I had something stuck in my throat," Jack said.

"Anyway they needed someone to check on you; no one else wanted to leave the claim - since they haven't gotten used to the new rule you made - so I volunteered to track you down, and see if you were okay," Varl told Aloy.

Varl is one of Aloy's closest friends so she wasn't surprised if Varl volunteered to come, and find her.

"The matriarchs know that know that I can take care of myself, you didn't need to come, and check on me," Aloy said.

Jack let out a small chuckle, and the two braves looked at him.

"And who are you?" Varl asked.

"Oh yeah Varl this is Jack.I met him on the path," Aloy said.

"Nice to meet you.," Jack extended his hand for a handshake. Varl didn't know how to respond.

"No handshake?Hmm.C'mon man dont leave me hanging," Jack insisted.

"Uhh", Varl was confused.

"No handshake, alright," Jack put away his hand, feeling a little awkward."Oh yeah i'm sorry about bashing your face with my rifle earlier," Jack said.

"Its alright, I would've done the same if I was startled like that," Varl said."Now can I speak to Aloy in private for a little bit?" He asked.

"Yeah sure, I'll be over there if you need me."

Varl led Aloy under the shadow of a tree, and whispered to her.

"Who is that guy?He doesn't look like he comes from around here, and what kind of weapon is he holding?", Varl asked.

Jack leaned against the trunk of another three a few meters away from the two, but he couldn't hear what the two were talking about. He was really was looking forward to getting back to home for a little bit to see his girlfriend Kristine before he gets sent back to the front in California to fight the plague. He promised her that he'd come back when the war was won, and the plague eradicated, he was even planning to propose to her when he gets back. They've been together for about three years, and when he gets back should be a good time if not the only time.

 _This war will end soon babe, and I'll be back to you once it does._ Jack thought while looking through a picture of her in his focus.

Little does he know that day will never happen.

"I think I know where he's from Varl," Aloy said.

"Where?"

"I think he's one of the Old Ones."

"Thats impossible," Varl said in disbelief.

"You call that impossible," Aloy motioned her head over to Jack who was still under the tree.

"He does look like an Old One," Varl said.

Varl is one of the three people who knows the truth about the world. The other two is Teb, and Erend. Varl was overwhelmed when Aloy told him, and she thought he was gonna get a heart attack at the spot where she told him. Aloy also showed him a bunch of pictures through her focus of how the 'Old Ones' looked like.

"But that doesn't explain how he got here, and even if he survived the plague the years to come after would've killed him," Varl said.

"Yeah, I know, but I think I know a way he could've survived, but I can't tell you now though. For now you should get back to the tribe, and tell them i'm okay.I still need to get those parts." Aloy said.

"Alright I'll see you later," Varl said, and ran back to the walked back to Jack.

"Where is he going?" Jack asked.

"Uhh," Aloy can't break it down to Jack yet."Umm he's just heading back to the camp we have set up" Aloy said, while trying to sound as much as the Old Ones as possible.

"Okay, but do they have a sat phone or anything we still need to get you to the hospital," Jack said.

Aloy listened to a lot of holo-logs to know how to respond to some of the things Jack would say.

"Umm they...are like on a technology free camping trip, they don't have any devices with them."

Jack suspected that she was not telling her something, but dismissed it.

"Alright then let's go," Jack said, and Aloy nodded, and they were on their on their way.

* * *

As they were walking Aloy decided to let curiosity take over, and she began to ask questions.

"Um Jack"

"Yes Aloy"

"I wanted to ask what denver was?"

"You don't know what denver is?Are you like foreign or something?" Jack said.

"Um yeah, I am foreign," Aloy said.

"Oh yeah, from what country?" Jack asked.

Aloy's mind once again rushed to find an answer.

"Um...Im...from...canada, yeah i'm from canada," Aloy said, but Jack wasn't convinced.

"From what part of canada," Jack asked

"Um...from...british columbia," Jack halted, and examined her.

Aloy didn't like the way he was looking at her.

"Hmm alright you're canadian, but why are you here in colorado?Was it just to go camping with your friends?" Jack asked.

"Well yes.I have some friends who couldn't come to canada so I had to go here," Aloy said.

"Hmm...alright," Jack said, and they continued walking."By the way, to answer your question Denver is a city here in colorado."

"Alright, but another question is what weapon is that, the one you're carrying?"

"This?" Jack showed her his rifle.

"Yeah"

"Well this is an M2063 assault rifle. Ranged weapon, U.S. navy standard issue rifle, 700 rounds per minute, 1000 meter effective range, semi-auto, full auto, and a true ass kicker." Jack explained.

"That's a nice weapon, how does it work though?" Aloy asked.

"You point the front end of the rifle at what you wanna shoot, and pull the trigger," Jack said sarcastically.

"Hmm"

"Anymore questions?" Jack asked.

"No"

"Okay then"

As they were walking Jack got a strong feeling of suspicion on Aloy, she acts weird towards him, asks a lot of questions, and when he talks about something with her she would find it hard to answer back, it may just be him thinking too much, but he'll have to interrogate her later.

Another thing is that something does not feel right, he has a theory, but hopes he's wrong about it.

They continued walking, but had to stop and catch their breaths at a small stream.

Aloy concluded in her thoughts that the city of Denver is the ruins of the Old Ones where the metal ring is, while Jack thought about Aloy, and how mysterious she is.

 _What a strange girl,_ Jack thought, and drank some water.

* * *

 **The assault rifle Jack is holding is completely made up, but it uses the 7.62x51 or the .458 SOCOM.**

 **Again i'm sorry again for the punctuation errors or any missing words in case I missed any.**

 **But thanks for reading. :)**


	5. Chapter 5:The Dark Truth

**Hey guys welcome back, and I think I found a fix for the problem, so you guys won't have to worry about anything for now.**

 **And I forgot to mention this before: Aloy is using her default outfit, but she uses the best weapons in the game, and she doesn't posses the shield weaver armour, because you know how overpowered she would be if she had it. I might add it in the future though.**

 **Long chapter incoming.**

 **But anyways guys enjoy. :)**

* * *

Aloy and Jack rested on the bank of a small stream as they drank water from it. Jack's mind was still focused on one thing. And that thing was Aloy. Her behavior, and expressions towards him are very odd, like she's hiding something from him. Something important.

He'll have to interrogate her, even if it means pulling it straight from her throat. But he doesn't want to underestimate her - she's a huntress after all. But he has it all planned out.

A few minutes later they finished their short break, and they were on their way. But first…

"Aloy," Jack called out to her.

"Yeah?"

"Is there anything you're not telling me?Cause I think you should tell me," Jack said. Aloys heart sank.

 _I think he know, but I think he doesn't,_ Aloy thought.

"Um no there nothing for me to tell you," Aloy said.

"C'mon you can tell me. Even if you're hauling drugs, you can still tell me. Hell I won't care, everyone does that these days. Its america after all," Jack said.

"Um not really comfortable to talk about it," Aloy said.

"Why?You lost someone?" Jack asked.

"Well yeah," Aloy said. She did lose Rost, and she was still kinda bummed out about it. Aloy tried to calm down, and change her expression to hide from Jack.

"Oh um...okay. I guess you really can't talk about, but is there really nothing you can talk to me about?" Jack asked for one more time.

Aloy shook her head left, and right. Jack examined her facial expressions for a moment.

"Alright, guess you really aren't hiding something. Let's go, we only have a few more klicks to go."

Aloy exhaled a sigh of relief, but it was a mistake. Jack was still watching her, and the large exhale indicated that she was relieved from talking to him, which means she was still hiding something. That and the fact that he was able to read her body language: breathing increased, muscles tensed, sweating, and speech getting bad all told him that she wasn't being truthful to her. And now all he has to do is hear the truth himself.

They continued down the path in silence. It was time. Jack would probably regret doing this, but he had to it, he needed the answers.

Aloy was on autopilot, and Jack began by breaking the silence.

"Aloy," Jack called out to her.

"Yep," She said.

"Are you like allergic to chemicals?" Jack asked.

"No, why?" She said.

"Because of this," Jack said, and pulled out a syringe filled with a sleep drug. Jack kicked Aloy's legs which caused her to lose her balance, and fall to the ground. Before she could react Jack was already on top of her, and pinning her down. He cover her mouth with one hand, and the other on the syringe. He drove the syringe straight into Aloy's heart, and injected the fluid.

"Shhh...calm down it's only a sedative, you'll be alright," Jack said.

Aloy's breathing was lowered, and she slowly stopped squirming. After a few seconds she started to fall on a deep sleep.

Aloy struggled to get Jack of him, but she became really sleepy, and started to lose control of her body. Her eye began to blur, hearing getting shoddy, and mind shutting down. Her eyelids fell, and she lost all control. She was in a state of deep sleep…

She woke up a little bit later, but her eyes were still blurred by a little bit, and her strength still down too low for her to do anything. She felt like she was moving like she was being dragged, and lifted. But her eyes became dark again, and she was back to sleep…

* * *

She woke again later, but she had regained, control of her body, strength, and eyesight. She tried to get her hands to bare but they were both tied to her back, along with her legs. Her gear was completely striped away from her besides her clothes. She saw her weapons along with her focus a few meters from her, and beside them was Jack who had his back turned against Aloy, and he seems to be sharpening a knife.

Aloy had a pin hidden in her sleeve. She took it out, and began to pick the lock.

"Guess you're awake," Jack said. He put the the sharpening stone, and put the knife in it's holder, and faced Aloy. The sun was still setting, but Jack had started a bonfire.

"What do you want from me?" Aloy asked.

"I know Aloy, if that's even your name," Jack said.

"Yes that's my name, and you know what?" Aloy said.

"I know you're lying to me Aloy, and I want the truth," Jack said.

Aloy heart started to pump hard. She's been caught, but she still doesn't have an explanation yet. But there's no other way out of this, she's been pinned down to deep to escape. She has to tell him the truth, and maybe the two of them can come out unscaved.

"Alright I'll tell you, but I'd have to take you somewhere," Aloy said.

"Fine, just don't try to lie anymore or try anything funny," Jack said. "Let's go."

"Hey!Are you not gonna get me out of this?" Aloy said.

"You have been picking that lock since you woke up, so by now you should have it undone," Jack said.

Aloy had finished picking the lock, and her hands were freed. She proceeded to pick the lock of the shackles on her legs, while Jack took his things including Aloy's stuff. Once Aloy finished the last shackle she stood up.

"Can I have my stuff back?" She demanded

"Not so fast, you still owe me the truth," Jack said, cocked his rifle, and pointed it at Aloy.

"Can I atleast have my focus back?" Aloy said.

"Fine," Jack reached into his pocket, and took out Aloy's focus, and tossed it at her. She catched it, and put it back on her right temple. "Now lead the way," Jack said.

Aloy went first while Jack trailed behind while keeping his rifle ready, and keeping a distance incase she tries anything funny.

Jack noticed that they were still heading their present course towards Denver.

"Why are we going this way?" He asked.

"You'll see," Aloy said. Jack's own theory he hopes is wrong started to get stronger. He swallowed the lump in his throat from that thought.

An hour of walking later they arrived at the end of the forest at edge of a cliff overlooking the city of Denver. Or what it used to be. Jack's heart sank. He tried to process what he was seeing.

"What is this?" Jack said.

"This is Denver Jack," Aloy said. All the bright lights of the once capital city of the state of colorado was replaced empty ruins long abandoned.

"This is not a city, these are ruins Aloy!" He yelled.

"This was a city before the plague, but after it's just this," Aloy said.

"That can't be possible!"

"You standing there doesn't make it possible?"

"It's impossible!Project Zero Dawn, the super weapons program!We bought them enough time, they should've been able to eradicate the swarm!" He yelled.

"Project zero dawn had a different outcome"

Jack couldn't believe it. He just couldn't.

"Oh I see what's happening," A smile formed on Jack's lips, and he laughed.

 _Oh no, he's lost it,_ Aloy thought.

"All of this was just a prank. A joke, it went too far though, but all of you still got me. So now y'all can come out. I surrender, you got me real good now you can come out!" Jack yelled. Inside he hoped, and prayed this was a joke.

"You can come out now!" Jack pointed his rifle onto the sky, and let out a burst of shots. "COME ON!COME OUT!"

Still whatever Jack imagined never happened.

"Please come out!" Jack fell to the ground sobbing. "Please...come out," He refused to believe, he just didn't want to.

 _I'm sorry_ , Aloy thought while she stood a few feet away. She feels ocean full of pity towards him. I mean how can't she? This man is trained to fight anything, to not be overwhelmed, to be unbreakable, but unfortunately his training never taught how to overcome this.

"GODAMMIT!" He cried out. He knelt on the ground while sobbing uncontrollably, and knelt while it all came down on him. "God why?just why?"

"This is no joke Jack, this is real, i'm sorry," Aloy said. Aloy pitied the poor man. She knows how much is crashing down on him.

Jack looked at her, stood up, drew his pistol, pointed it at her, and pulled the hammer down. The two sides on his mind fought on what to do. _Shoot her?Don't shoot her._

Aloy didn't run, but tried to negotiate with him.

"Jack...put your weapon down. It's gonna be okay," Aloy said while raising her hands on a defensive position, and slowly taking small steps toward him.

Jack didn't respond, instead he pointed the away from Aloy, and onto his head.

"NO!" Aloy yelled.

"This is all just a bad dream. If I shoot myself now then, I'd just wake up back at home, and it would all be over," Jack said.

"Jack, don't do it," Aloy has seen people kill people before, she's even taken lives herself. But she has never seen a man take his own life, and she's willing not to see one do it right now."Jack this is not a dream nor is it a joke, this is all real. I'm sorry, but it is."

Jack kept a firm grip on the gun, while his mind battled it out. _Pull the trigger!Dont pull the trigger!If you pull the trigger, all would be well!All of this is real, if you pull the trigger you would only set yourself on a darker path!_ His subconscious told him.

"Jack don't you do it," Aloy said. She was close enough to grab the gun from his hand, and point it away, but he was quick, and he retreated back. "Jack," Aloy insisted. "Please," She begged.

The grip Jack kept on the pistol became harder, and harder, until…

He put the hammer down, and dropped the gun.

"I see now. This is no joke, not even a bad dream. It's all real, ain't it?" He said.

"Yes it is Jack. I'm sorry, is there anything I can repay you?" Aloy asked. Jack looked at her for a second.

"Theres one way," He said.

"What is it?"

"The rest of the happened to world?"

"Alright" It was at the verge of complete night time, only five more minutes to complete darkness. "We should probably get back to camp first"

"Good idea," Jack rubbed of the remaining tears from his eyes, and proceeded. "Let's go,"

On the way back Jack didn't bother to put his guard up or point his rifle at Aloy. If she wanted to run away then he'd let him, If a robot sabertooth would jump him then he'd allow himself to be eaten. He just didn't seem to see the value of his life anymore.

They made it back to camp, Jack restarted the fire, and Aloy began to tell him the rest of everything. She started on the different role of project zero dawn, then the death of Elisabet Sobeck, and how she was her mother, then the formation of the tribes, and the reason why everyone was back at the stone age.

"1000 years. Damn so everyone really is dead," Jack said.

 _Well look at the bright side, at least I don't have to pay for that stupid overpriced tax anymore,_ He thought.

"Now tell me about you."

"Alright," Aloy said and began. "She told about how she was raised as an outcast by a man named rost, the the proving, then the massacre at the proving, her journey around the land, the battle with HADES, and how she stopped a second plague from happening.

"Wow. You killed all of those things with just a spear, and a bow, and arrow?"

"I had some help"

"Still, it's amazing. In my time we could have fifty men armed with AT rocket launchers, and railguns, supported by artillery, and still only be able to kill one.

"Really?"

"Well they had shields at the time so it was harder to kill them, but the deathbringers shield must've been damaged by time, and judging by the fact most of the men were ill-trained civilians unlike the warriors you have who have been programmed from birth."

The two laughed it out.

"Then there was Rost. He was pretty much the only person I could call a family. Unlike Elisabet who died a long time ago," Aloy said.

"This is gonna turn this around, but I know how you feel," Jack said.

"You wouldn't know. I was there I saw him get murdered on front of me," Aloy said.

"I know how it feels to see someone you love die in front of you," Jack removed his focus, and tossed it at her. "Put it on, and see for yourself."

Aloy removed her focus, and put Jack's on. There was a holo-vid so Aloy played it.

* * *

She was transported to the backyard of the house.

"What is this?"

"Just keep watching it."

There were two kids playing on the backyard.

"Pass me the ball!"  
"No I want to take the shot"

"Not fair Jack, you already had your turn already!"

"Just wait"

Younger Jack threw the ball, but it didn't go in the ring.

"Aww shucks, now your turn Johnny" Younger Jack passed the ball to the other kid whose name is Johnny.

"Alright watch me kill it!" Johnny threw the ball, then it landed dead straight into the ring.

"Nice shot bro!" Younger Jack said.

"Boy's, c'mon in I made sandwhiches!" A more feminine voice called coming from inside the house.

"Yes!" The two boys said in unison.

"I call the ham, and cheese"

"I call the bacon"

The two brothers ran back into the house.

Aloy was now transported somewhere else. She found herself inside a tight space with a group of men who were armed.

"Where am I?" Aloy asked.

"You're in a transport heading to the front Aloy," Jack said.

She saw that they were all sitting down with their weapons. Some said prayers, while some wrote notes. She saw Jack who looked a little bit younger with that Johnny guy who was a lot older, and who sat next to Jack with a bigger weapon.

"Hey lieutenant, once this is over drinks are on me!Assuming I make it out," Another man said.

"You better not be screwing us Martinez, like what you did last time," Jack said.

"No I am not sir," Martinez said.

Jack looked to his left, and saw that Johnny was sweating from nervousness.

"What's wrong Johnny?" Jack asked.

"I don't know. Maybe pre-battle jitters."

"You can calm down. It's just another day in the office. Just keep that MG firing, we'll be alright."

"Sure thing big brother...er I mean sir," Johnny said.

"LZ inbound in ETA 1 minute," The announcer said.

"Everybody check your gear," Jack said.

A second later a sound buzzed, and they all stood up facing the door. The ramp went down, and they all exited the transport.

Aloy could see everything. She saw wounded being loaded into more of those before flying away. She could hear loud explosions, followed by loud continuous gunfire. She looked up, and saw the sky was also a battlefield against Faro drones, and other aircraft.

"Where am I now?" Aloy asked.

"This is the front. The year is 2064 AD. The city of Los angeles. We fortified the edge of the shoreline turning it into a fortress, and fought the swarm there," Jack said.

Aloy looked out to see, and saw Metal devils dropping more, and more corruptors, and deathbringers. Once the corruptors reached the beachhead they unleashed their weaponry to try, and bring down the fortifications.

"So this is the plague," Aloy said.

"This is only the west coast branch. The machine came from all directions of the country. So fighting is in all sides of the country. It's like shooting fish in a barrel at that point except we were the fish," Jack said.

Younger Jack surveyed the area, and gathered his men.

"Alright men, welcome back to the office. When we were fighting in the middle east it was hard for us. We were scared. Just like now well guess what i'm scared too, we all our, but now that we are fighting in our own backyard it's actually easier now, because that we know that we are fighting for our families, for our love ones, and for our home our country. So let fear be a distant memory to you!We defend this beach or we die with honor!As long as our flag flies on this beach we have a chance." Younger Jack said."To your posts men"

"YES SIR!" They all said.

Later younger Jack found the man in charge here.

"Status report sir," He said.

"There's a train leaving Los Angeles carrying parts for project zero dawn. The swarm was able to intercept the message though, and they will pound the wall in order to stop it. Your objective is to hold them off long enough until the train can leave." The captain said.

"What's the cargo of the train sir?"

"I don't know, a hades something," The captain said, put it on his helmet, and went outside.

Aloy gasped.

"Yup, we defended the parts to make that thing," Jack said.

The men set up their guns on the wall, and shot at the incoming swarm.A plane flew overhead, and dropped bombs at the Faro robots.

"Focus your fire at their shield generators first," Younger Jack said. The team went after a deathbringer first, one of the team members managed to destroy its shield generator.

"I got its shield!"

"Good job, now go for the legs," Younger Jack said. They focused their fire on the machine's legs, and rendered it immobile.

"Clark!"

"Yes sir!" Clark pulled out a rocket launcher, and fired it onto the deathbringer. The deathbringer exploded into a fiery flame.

"Whooo!Nice shot!" Younger Jack said. They heard a whistling noise. Jack looked up, and saw a missile flying towards them.

"INCOMING!" Jack yelled, and they all fled for their lives. The missile impacted, but Jack was able to get away.

"Who's hit?" Jack asked. Everyone seemed to be okay. "Where's Johnny?"

"Here," Said a weak voice of Johnny. He was a hit by shrapnel, and was bleeding out fast.

"Oh hell," Jack ran over to his sides. "Keep pressure on that wound !" He called out.

"Jack I don't think I'll make it," Johnny said.

"No, don't say that, just keep pressure on it," Jack said.

"Jack,"

"What?"

"Promise me you'll keep fighting for what's right no matter what," Johnny asked.

"Yeah sure, anything you want," Jack said.

"Good," Johnny's head became limp as well as the rest of his body."

"Johnny don't do this. Stay with me Johnny, stay with !" Jack called out.

The medic came, and put two fingers on Johnny's neck to try, and find a pulse, but found nothing instead.

"He's gone," The medic said.

"No he's not!"

"Yes he is!"

"At Least do something, you didn't do anything!"

"Sir look at 's nothing else I can do!" The medic said. "I'm sorry sir, but there really is nothing."

Jack felt a deep weight inside of felt to the ground crying over his now dead brother.

* * *

Aloy ended the video, and removed the Focus, and hers back.

"I'm sorry for doubting you, I didn't know," Aloy said.

"Why are you apologizing?I should be the one to apologize, i'm the one who almost killed you," Jack said.

Aloy chuckled a little, "Well, apology accepted, I guess," She said. "So how do you feel about the new world?"

"I don't really know what to say about it. It's a fresh start for the world, but we could just repeat all the world's mistakes all over again," Jack said.

"Not really all of it," Aloy said.

"Maybe we could prevent some, but not everything. It's even too late to tell everyone about the old world or there'd be chaos."

"Yeah you're right, it's just…"

"Just what?"

"It's just my tribe. To them i'm some sort of god, and I don't like them treating me that way. I wish there was a way for them to just kick me out of the tribe," Aloy said.

"Don't say that," Jack said.

"They cast me out to be shunned then they treat me like a god afterwards."

"They were just scared. People like that tend to lose their way in hard times Aloy," Jack said."

"I still don't like it though," Aloy said.

"Well you have to give them a break. I mean they found you inside you inside of that mountain, took you to Rost who made you who you are today, or they could've just left you inside that mountain to die or kill you where you were found or worse," Jack said.

Aloy didn't respond.

"Remember what I told you? When you're part of a country, you're part of the people, which make you part of the family. Same goes with a tribe, but in a smaller scale," Jack said.

"You're right, I guess I just took it too seriously," Aloy said.

"Well, we should get to sleep. You know how late it is already," Jack said.

Aloy nodded, and they went to sleep.

"Aloy," Jack said.

"Yeah?"

"I just felt like I should say sorry again for any troubles I caused you. So i'm sorry," Jack said.

"And again it's alright"

The two dozed off into sleep.

* * *

 **Thank you guys for reading, and i'll have the next chapter in a week.**

 **No promises though.**

 **:)**


	6. OC breakdown

**This will serve as a breakdown of my OC Jack. Apparently one of you went over the top with him so here it is.**

* * *

Real name: Jackson R. Smith

Nickname: Jack

Status: Alive

Profession: U.S. Army ranger, Bounty Hunter

Age: 25

Birth date: July 14th 2039

Belief:Roman catholic

Race: Caucasian

Eye color: Dark brown

Hair color: Black

Height: 5,9

Skin color: Tanned white.

Good looking, very healthy physique, strong muscles due to the genetic enhancement.

Born in chicago illinois, but moved to iowa after he was born. He was raised, and grew up in a farm in Iowa with his younger brother mother, and father. He went to school, but was never the best in class. He had a fascination in making things, he could make things like animal traps or simple electronics. He'd get bullied sometimes, but when he tries to fight back he'd end up getting into trouble himself. He faced depression, but never thought about killing himself. He was a roman catholic, and his faith in his belief freed him from depression. He goes on vacation on Colorado, and that's where he meets his girlfriend, and he'd move there eventually. At the age of 19 he applied for the U.S. army, but was denied, he tried again for another 6 times until he was accepted. He struggled at the first few parts, but he carried on. Eventually he became one of the best of the best until the U.S. military established a new class of peacekeeping war machines through Faro Automated Solutions. Foot soldiers were no longer needed as much as they were before so the number of men dropped until there were only 10,000 men left including Jack, and his brother Johnny.

When the swarms turned against the men controlling them operation enduring was established.

During a battle to hold out the swarm in the Los Angeles beach a missile hit the position of Jack's squad. Everyone made it out unscathed except for Johnny who took shrapnel into his gut, and he bled out before help could arrive. A few days later his funeral was held back at iowa, but Jack was cut short because the swarm was able to get through the Los Angeles garrison. Ina desperate act The military revived an old project that made serums to somehow enhance the human body so that it could do more. Jack was one of many who took the serum, but it only worked on him. They ran a few more test, but it was too late. The swarm has already penetrated too far in land which made the military put the subjects in cryo preservation, and place the facility in total lockdown. The project was never finished and was never distributed to the troops fighting the swarm. Nearly a thousand years later the main power generator has failed, and the main computer initiated an emergency protocol to wake up all the remaining subjects. Jack was freed thinking it was still only the year 2064, and when he ventures into the facility he learns that he was all that was left. He ventures out of the facility, and encounters machines then comes across Aloy who would later tell him the truth about the world, and the story continues from there...

Jack is heavily inspired by captain america, and soldier 76/Jack morrison from overwatch. You can tell by the name, and even his personality is a cross between the two with a little additions.

He uses the survivalist gear from Tom Clancy's The Division with some changes.

His primary weapon is the M2063 assault rifle which looks like an AR-15 with a bad-ass looking hand guard, and advanced optics. (This weapon is made up.) He also has the colt M1911 MEU(SOC) . 45 caliber pistol, and a hunting knife. He also have a med-kit, and an all terrain survival gear. He also had explosives like: Grenades frag/EMP/shock/stun/smoke/incendiary, mines claymore/proximity, C4, and an assortment of different traps blast/shock/stun/flame.

* * *

 **That's basically Jack. If you feel like he's a bit off please leave a review because your feedback can make my OC better or story better, but please be nice. And I just wanna say thank you to those who like/love my story, it means a lot to me since I put a lot into making it, but for those who don't, i'm sorry, and please leave a review on what I could've done differently.**

 **Anyway thanks, and Ill see you in the next one. :)**


	7. Chapter 6:Stranger in Meridian

**Hey guy guys welcome back.**

 **I realized that this story was gonna be harder to write since it's hard to match Aloy's level of sarcasm. I talk like crap when I try to be sarcastic, but that doesn't mean I wont deliver a finished product.**

 **Anyway enjoy. :)**

* * *

Aloy, and Jack woke up the next morning. The two collected their belongings, and got ready to go.

"Here take your stuff back," Jack returned Aloy's gear, and weapons.

"Thank you, so where do we go now," Aloy asked.

"You don't have to follow me anymore. As you can see there's no hospital to bring you to," Jack said.

"Alright, but here take this," Aloy handed him a small a small sack of filled with metal shards, and a map of the area.

"Shards, what for?"

"They are what we use as money here in this era."

"Thanks."

"So um...i'll see you around, I guess," Aloy said.

"Yeah you too," Jack said.

The two said their goodbyes, and part ways. Aloy went to the shell-walker location to get the parts she needed, while Jack headed east from what's left of denver. He and his girlfriend bought a house twenty miles from the city, and that was where he was gonna go.

Jack went around the city since Aloy told her it was crawling with machines. He managed to avoid the machines, and he was now on what used to be a highway.

A day later he arrived at the house. He opened the door, and entered the old house. Everything was where it should be, besides the overgrown plants inside. He went upstairs to the bedroom, and found a really old photo of Jack, and Kristine when they were at florida. It was a surprise it still kept its normal form after all those years. Jack took the picture, and put it inside his bag.

He went downstairs to the basement. Jack wanted to be sure so he turned the basement into a bunker, and filled it with supplies. He'd sometimes be paranoid of what can happen like china saying screw it, and starting a nuclear war, or a nationwide blackout. But he could never prepare for the plague. No one could've prepared for something as major as that.

There was an access panel on the vault door, but Jack managed to get through it without wasting any effort. He climbed down the ladder, and explored the bunker. He saw that all the food was gone, and the ammo cans for the weapons empty. A minute of searching he found Kristines body along with other people's body. Jack suspected that the other body's were people Kristine invited into the bunker with her. She had a heart of pure gold, and couldn't bare to leave those people out to die on the streets. Jack discovered a bunch of holo-logs on the office table, but he decided to do the right thing, and give Kristine, and those people a proper burial first. He carefully dragged the bodies upstairs, and onto the front yard. He found an old shovel at the garage, and dug holes on the ground. He gathered sticks, and tied them together to make a cross, and put one on each hole. He lowered each body into a hole, and covered it back up. After that he recited a prayer, and walked over to Kristines grave. He made a sign, and put her name on it, and put that sign on the cross, and knelt down.

"Hey babe. I promised you, I'd come back, but here I am. I was just really really late."

He was actually more than just really really late.

"I'm sorry I couldn't come back to you in time. I hope things would still be good between us even though you're up there," He pulled an engagement ring from his pocket. "And i'm sorry I failed to give this to you. We could have finally gotten together, and I could've died in that hole with you, cause you know 'till death do us part', but now I know that will never happen," He slid the ring on the top of the cross."Consider this a late proposal," He said as he shed a tear."I will always love with all my heart," He kissed two fingers, and put those two fingers on the sign."It's getting dark now, I have to go," Jack got up, and went back in the house. He went upstairs, and laid on the bed, and watched the holo-logs.

The first holo-log he watched was Kristine's twenty first birthday in 2060. Then the second one was when the swarm penetrated the defences in Los angeles, and was moving in land. Jack taught Kristine how to hunt, gather, fight, and survive for as long as possible. The third log was a few months after the swarm penetrated in land. Kristine found some people, and invited them into the bunker. And the last one, the fourth log...

 _Date: 03/31/2067_

"Hey everyone this is gonna be my last log, and it might even be my last birthday. So the all the food is gone, some of the people left, and took some of the weapons with to try, and survive outside, while the rest - my friends - decided to stay with me since either they have nowhere else to go or they just want to keep my company. They agreed to spend my birthday with me, and our last supper might be this cupcake I've been saving," Kristine brought out a cupcake in a pack. "And another thing is that Jack, I know you are out there, and I know that you will come across this holo-log, I know you Jack. I know that you think that you broke your promise to me that you'd come come back, well you didn't, and you never will, you'll just be really really late. Wherever you are Jack just remember that I will always love you with my heart in this life, and the next," She put her hand on the screen, and Jack did the same."Goodbye, and stay safe Jack."

The holo-log ended. Jack was on a rollercoaster of emotions. He kept himself from crying again, and went to sleep.

The next morning he woke up, and gathered his stuff, and got ready to leave. He searched the house one more time to make sure he didn't leave anything behind. It was good idea he checked again, because this time he found a pair of goggles with infrared, and night-vision sights. Before he left, he visited Kristines grave one more time. After that he was back on the road, and continuing to where he would go next. The only question is "Where do I go next?". There was no home nor city to return to.

He pulled out the map Aloy gave him. On the corner of the map Aloy attached the '4 tips to not dying' specially for Jack.

Tip 1:Don't go near the land of the Nora or you'll die.

Tip 2:Don't tell anyone you're an old one or you'll die.

Tip 3:Don't face any of the big machines head-on or you'll die.

Tip 4:Don't listen to any of these tips then you'll most definitely die.

-Aloy

He chuckled at the 'helpful' tips, and Aloy's handwriting. His own handwriting sucks - if you compare his handwriting to chicken scratch, chicken scratch would be more readable. He shouldn't be laughing, but he couldn't help it. Aloy did have nice drawing skills with the map, so he scanned the map with his focus, and it made a visual map to make it easier to know where somewhere is so he could go there. He looked at the map, and thought of where he wanted to go next.

"Hmm this meridian place looks promising," He said, and plotted his course. The map said he had to cross a snowy mountain, a desert, and a jungle. Eh he was used to it, and of he went.

Night was coming, and he reached the first leg of the journey which was the snowy mountains. He needed to rest. He decided to rest under a tree. He set his stuff down, and started a fire, and dozed of.

The next morning Jack woke up, and gathered his things, and headed his way.

He was only five minutes into the first morning when a freak snow storm struck. Fortunately he had the right gear with him so he could still walk in the storm. Jack put on his goggles, pulled up his hoodie, and mask to cover his mouth, and he was good to go. The storm was a pain in everything, it even penetrated through his protective clothing. But kept going anyway.

Jack made it to daytower, and removed his mask, and goggles.

"Approach!" The guard called over to him, and he came forward."What is your purpose?" The guard asked.

"I travel to meridian, I come, in Aloys behalf," He said.

"Aloy?"

"That is correct, will you open this door?" He asked. Aloy told him to use her name to get him anywhere in the specific places on the map.

"Of course, anything for anyone associated with meridian's savior. You heard him open that gate!" The guard yelled, and the gate slowly opened."You certainly aren't from around here, aren't you?" He added.

"That question answers itself," Jack said sarcastically.

"Well may the sun light your way," The guard said.

.Everyone at the fortress stared at him, they never saw someone like him before. Obviously they never saw a man in modern winter gear with a rifle before.

"What tribe is he from?" Says a man.

"I think he's Nora or Oseram," Says another.

He still needed to get used to these remarks. He got managed to get through the fortress, and he managed to bypass the stormbird site, and the next thing in front of him was a desert, and a lot of it. He didn't understand the geography of the new world. There's something cold next to something hot, warm weather next to cold weather. He knew he won't understand stand a lot of things, but that's how the world goes, and he'll just have to adjust to it.

The desert was punishing, it was only 3:30 in the afternoon, but the sun was still high in the sky. He removed his jacket, to vent the heat from his body, and kept going. His clothes were meant for cold weather not the desert, but regardless of what he had he kept going anyway. He doesn't even what meridian is, but something deep inside him made him keep going. As he crossed the desert his luck turned against him again, and a freak sandstorm swept over him. Seriously, he does not understand the weather of this new era. That AI Aloy told him must've been malfunctioning or something, but again he won't be able to understand everything. He has no choice, but to deal with it. He put his mask, and goggles on, and kept going, but night was coming fast, and he went to find shelter. He found a small cave, and decided to camp out there for the night.

When he woke up the next morning he didn't waste any time to pick his belongings, and heading his way. He found a river, and ran over to it, and began to drink from the water, he should've filtered it before he started drinking, but he was so thirsty. As he drank the river water, he noticed that something was in front of him, something big, something he just crossed the territory of. He put his head up, and the next thing he knew he was staring at a robot crocodile.

 _Snapmaws,_ That's what they were called. It tried to bite his head off, but he was faster to react. He knew that he shouldn't face it head-on - as stated in Aloy's 4 tips - so he ran to its side, and unleashed a bullet storm. His armour-piercing rounds tore through the snapmaw's sides, and it only cost him one clip. He knew more may be coming so he filled his canteen, and kept going to his destination.

He later arrived at meridian a couple of hours before sundown. He expected it to be a village with a bunch of farmers, but was astonished to see a city instead, a city that already uses elevators. The people of today was catching up pretty quick with the old world.

He walked over to the bridge, and crossed the valley between him, and the city. While he crossed he received stares from passers-by though he knew it was coming, and he took it.

He was stopped by the guards at the gates, but one saying of Aloy's name, and they let him through. The city was beautiful.

 _For a world filled with uneducated savages this place is amazing,_ He thought. He admired the architecture, "How were they able to do this?"

As he explored the city he received received anticipated stares, and wandering eyes, and he found the tavern.

"Thank god," He sighed. "At least I can still drink my problems away."

He entered the tavern, and saw a usual sight. There were men chatting as they wasted themselves, and while music played in the background. When they noticed him everyone went silent, and stared at him. He would feel awkward, but he already began to get used to the stares. Jack walked over to the bar, and took a seat.

"What can I get you son?" The bartender asked in a in an irish accent as he dried a mug.

"Give me the strongest you've got," Jack said, and placed a stack of shards on the table."Keep the change," He added.

The bartender filled a mug with alcohol, and passed it over to Jack who didn't hesitate to take a swig. The brew wasn't cold, _Duh of course it ain't cold Jack,_ and it tasted bitter like it's only been aged for a day, but it had a strong kick which he liked.

As he drank a group of men approached him. Jack noticed, and put his guard up.

"Look at what we have here gentlemen," A man maybe the leader of the group said in a deep british."You're not from around here aren't ya?"

"What does it look like?" Jack said, and took another sip.

"Right, I just wanted to ask what tribe you are from, because you don't look like you came from a tribe around here."

"I think I know what tribe he belongs Kane," Say a man beside him."I think he's part of the chicken tribe!" Everyone burst into laughter besides Jack, but he didn't care. He went through the same torment when he was younger.

"I don't actually come from anywhere around here," Jack plainly said.

Kane chuckled."That's the point, you don't come from here which means you don't belong in here, so best you get your things, and get out!" Kane said, and pointed at the door.

Jack stood up."Hey man why don't you gather your squad, and sit back down. You're the one being stared at not me," Jack said, and sat back down to drink some more.

Angered, Kane tried to hit Jack, but he was able to dodge it. Kane tried to hit him again, but this time Jack caught his fist, and he punched Kane in the gut, and threw him over a table. A second man took out a dagger, and tried to stab Jack, but he avoided it, and he grabbed the man's head, and bashed it on the counter. Another man charged him, but he just threw him out of the window. Jack defended till the last man who tried to grab him, but he finished him off by giving him a knee to the face, and a broken arm. After that Jack took his mug of booze, and gulped the rest of its contents. He put the mug down just before carja soldiers stormed the tavern. Jack knew he couldn't fight his way out of this one so he surrendered.

They took him to meridians dungeon underground. They dragged him since the alcohol completely shut down Jack's legs, and threw him in a cell. Jack was dizzy from all he drank. He crawled over to the toilet, and vomited, he then crawled over to the bed, and sat down.

Erend happen to be doing his shift in checking on the prisoners.

"Anything new?" He asked the guard.

"We got a bunch of guys we arrested during a bar fight. Nothing out of the ordinary.

"Lemme see the new guys," Erend said.

"Yes captain follow me," The guard led Erend to each of the cells the men were put in until they arrived at Jack's cell.

"Where is he from?" Erend asked.

"I don't know captain, we tried questioning him, but he's still hasn't sobered up from the oseram brew he had," The guard said. Erend approached the cell.

"On your feet boy!" Erend told him. Jack heard him, and stood, and faced Erend. Jack gave him a salute.

"Ready for action sir," He slurred.

"Right, what's your name boy?" Erend asked him.

"Lieutenant Jackson R. Smith, U.S. Army, 3rd Ranger battalion, serial code 01312457829-," "Okay you can stop there," Erend cut him of."

"Sua sponte!Rangers lead the way, hooah!" Jack yelled.

"Okay now what tribe are you from boy?" Erend asked.

"That's the fifth time someone asked me that today, for the last time i'm not part of no goddamn tribe!" Jack clarified.

"Then where are you from?"

"I'm from colorado in the constitution of the united states of america, or what's left of it at least."

Erend didn't answer back.

"God why are ya'll so damn stupid!" Jack said.

"I told he's still too drunk, let's go captain," The guard said.

"Uh-huh, alright wait...did you say that your name was Jack?" Erend asked.

"Yes sir."

"Let's talk later shall we," Erend said.

"Alright," Jack said, and Erend left.

"Did he have anything with him?" Erend asked the guard.

"Yes captain," The guard led Erend to a room filled with prisoners belongings. "Here is what he had sir, a sack full of shards, knife, and some other things I don't know what's called," The guard picked up Jack's rifle. "I think this is a club of some sort, but it's pretty heavy."

"Put it down soldier, we don't know what it is or what its for," Erend said.

"Alright captain," The guard put the rifle down.

"Notify me if unknown guy is sober, I want to ask him a few things," Erend said.

The guard nodded, and he left.

* * *

 **Hey guys, I just want ya'll to know that i'm new to the story writing business - which is more of a hobby to me -, but you all Have to know that i'm also not perfect and, I can't add everything you guys want to my story.**

 **I love my story, my OC, and the way I write it cause that's what make it unique, but if you think there are some errors please leave a review because so that i'll know what to improve on or change. Just be nice please.**

 **Anyway no hard feelings guys, I am doing my best to make it better, and I'll see all of you in the next one. :)**


	8. Chapter 7:Settling Down

**Hey guys!**

 **So this chapter is dedicated mostly to Jack, and how he would begin to adjust to the new world. Aloy would appear later in the chapter, and if not the next chapter.**

 **Anyway guys enjoy. :)**

* * *

Jack felt like hell when he woke up the next morning; his head ached like nothing before. Plus the fact he was really dizzy. He transferred all his strength to his legs, and tried to sit upright, and put a hand on his head.

The guard came, and distributed food to each of the prisoners, Jack took his tray, and began to eat.

"You feeling better?" The guard asked him.

"Yeah, a little bit," Jack responded.

"Good, cause after you eat the captain wants to talk to you."

"Sure thing," Jack continued to eat while the guard left him. A few minutes later he finished, and the guard came back. He was led out of his cell, and the guard put shackles on his wrists, and led him outside. Erend waited outside while he sat admiring the view of the valley below. The guard brought Jack, and undid his shackles, and made him sit across from where Erend was sitting. Erend turned his head to face Jack, and he quickly realized who it was.

"You're the guy from last night right?" Jack asked Erend.

"Yep," Erend responded.

"Look if it's about the way I acted in front of you last night, then i'm sorry, I get carried away when I drink too much," Jack apologized.

"Aww no pressure boy, I would've done the same if I drank too much," Erend said, and waved it off. "And that was not why I had you come here."

"Then what is?"

Erend put his hands on the table between them. "My name is Erend, I already know yours," Jack didn't answer back. "Anyway Aloy told me about you, you know her right?"

"Yeah, I saved her from almost being eaten alive."

"She told me that, and she told me that you're capable of a lot of things." Erend told him.

"I guess I am," Jack proudly said.

"Well I've been looking for someone like you for months," Erend pulled out a bunch of wanted posters, and set them down on the table."After the attack of the eclipse, and ancient machines here in meridian the shadow carja, and eclipse were left with no leader, and they broke of, some worked alone while some established little bandit groups, and the people here are the most wanted from all of them," Jack was examine each poster as he listened.

"So what does this have to do with me?"

"I need someone to find these guys, and either throw them in prison or take' em out, and that person is you," Erend said while pointing at Jack.

"So this is basically a job offering?"

"Yep, basically that."

"And you basically need me to be your bounty hunter?"

"Yep"

Jack thought for a second.

"How much will I get paid for this?"

"500 shards per guy you bag," Jack whistled at that remark. "I'll even throw in a free apartment for you here in meridian to get you settled down."

"You sure are real desperate aren't ya?" Jack asked.

"Pretty much," Erend said.

"Okay sure, I'll do it, but I need my stuff back," Jack said.

"Consider it done," Erend raised a hand, and Jack took it, and they both shook hands. At least the Carja knew how to shake hands. After that, Erend told him that a guard would give him his stuff back, and lead him to his apartment, and if he wanted to get started he gave him a location in the city of meridian to meet up with Erend to hook him up on the job, and they part their ways for now.

The guard gave him his things back, and led him to the apartment Erend told him about. The guard handed him the key, and left. Jack entered the apartment, and his first impression was "not bad", there was a living room, a dining room, a bedroom, a small storage room. It sure as hell wasn't five-star living, but he had everything he needed, minus the air-conditioning, electricity, and internet.

He put his things down, and climbed upstairs to the bedroom, and instantly crashed. A few minutes later he decided he should explore the city some more, and stockpile on supplies. He got back up, and got ready to go. He left his rifle, but brought his pistol just in case.

The city was pretty big, but he found his way through anything. There was a market where he bought some food like meat, and vegetables, and started making his way back to the apartment.

On his way back there was an old lady walking across the street of a very populated area, when a bunch of guys came out of the shadows wearing masks, and tried to take the old lady's belongings. Jack dropped, and ran over to help out the old woman.

"HEY!" He yelled, and pulled off one of the attackers. They noticed Jack, and went for him instead, they pulled out sticks or daggers, and surrounded him. Jack got into a fighting defensive position, and got ready. He could just pull out his knife or pistol or both, and end the fight before it even starts, but that might spell a bad ending for him.

A guy rushed him, and tried to stab him, but Jack turned him around, and threw him back at the attackers. Another guy tried to stab him, but Jack grabbed his forearm, and punched the guy's gut, and jaw, same went for another guy who tried to punch him back; Jack tried to punch a guy, but the guy deflected it, and Jack followed up by kicking him in chest which sent the guy back, another guy tried to stab him, but Jack deflected the incoming blade, and grabbed the guy's head, and gave him a knee to the face. The fight lasted another minute, but Jack was able to deliver a lot of pain towards the attackers. There was one last guy was left, and he tried to rush-stab Jack, but jack grabbed the guy's forearm, twisted it, brought it to the guys back, and put him down on ground. Jack applied more pressure to the guy's arm, and the guy wailed in pain, Jack kept the pressure on the guy's arm, and brought him up to whispering range.

"Listen," Jack whispered to him.

"What do you want?" The guy said, trying to swallow the pain on his arm.

"I'll let you go, IF, you agree to no longer go around the streets stealing peoples stuff," Jack told him.

"Alright, fine, just let me go!" The guy said.

"Okay then, but if I do see you do it again, I'll make sure that you, and your buddies don't get away easy next time," Jack warned him. He eventually let him go, and the guy including his buddies picked themselves up, and ran away.

Jack saw that the old lady was laid down next to a wall, he saw the stuff the guys tried to take from her, and he walked over to it, and picked it up, and walked over to the lady, helped her up, and gave her, her things back. The old lady beamed a smile of thanks to Jack.

"Thank you very much!" The Old Lady said, Jack smiled.

"Its no problem," He replied, a second later group of armed soldiers followed by a crowd of city folks showed up. A young man-probably in his twenties-ran over to the old lady's side.

"Mother what happened?" He asked her. He noticed Jack, and pointed at him. "ARREST HIM!" He ordered. The group of guards approached Jack with weapons drawn, and Jack was getting to surrender, again.

"STOP!" The old lady cut them off. "Do not arrest that man!"

"Why mother?" Her son asked.

"I was coming back from the market when a group of men assaulted me, and tried to take my things, but this man showed up, and fought off," The old lady explained.

"Which way did they go?" The man asked.

"Down the road."

The man signaled a few of his soldiers to track down the culprits. The old lady pointed at Jack.

"If it wasn't for him, I would've been doomed," The old lady said. The man turned around, and faced Jack.

"What is your name?" He asked.

"Jack, Jack Smith," Jack replied.

"Well Jack smith thank you very much for helping my mother, is there anything I can do to repay you?" He asked.

"You don't have to repay me," Jack said.

"There has to be something," The man pleaded.

"I didn't do it for a reward, I only did it because I thought it was right," Jack said trying to close it.

"C'mon, at least let me buy you a drink," The man offered.

"Well...a drink would nice."

"There you go," The man said, and offered Jack his hand. Jack took it, and the man pulled him in for a hug.

"LET'S HEAR IT FOR THE STRANGER," one of the bystanders yelled. The crowd cheered for Jack while repeating his name over, and over. The crowd made way for Jack up until the tavern. The man bought him a huge mug of ale. They sat at a table occupied by what looks like the man's friends.

"To the sun," The man raised raised his mug, and the group men-including Jack-did the same.

"To the sun!" They toasted their mugs, and drank. A moment later Jack spoke up.

"I didn't get your name back there," Jack told the man.

"Oh, yeah, my name is Atlas, i'm the captain of the special forces unit of the carja," He said.

"Damn."

"Mhmm, how about you?" Atlas asked.

"You already know my name, i'm just a guy who lost everything back where from where he came from, and came here to find a new start," Jack lied, well technically he "bended" the truth.

"Why what happened?" Atlas asked with a curious tone.

"It's too hard for me to talk about," Jack faked his expressions, and his tone to make it more convincing.

"Oh okay, I won't push you any further," Atlas ended it.

"So what do the special forces unit do?" Jack said changing the topic.

"Well it's self explanatory I guess. We do the stuff the regular units can't do, we sometimes like to call ourselves the 'elite ghosts'," Atlas explained.

"Wow," Jack said, and took another swig.

"Now, are you looking for a job, the SpecOps unit could use someone like you," Atlas offered.

"Hate to break it to you man, but someone already beat you to it," Jack told him.

"Who?"

"A guy named Erend," Jack said.

"Erend captain of the vanguard?Well looks like you got one hell of a job," Atlas said.

"Does being a bounty hunter, going around the land killing a bunch of bad guys on a wanted poster count as 'one hell of a job'?" Jack asked.

"Of course it does, and you get a lot of privileges," Atlas told him.

"What sort of privileges?"

"You'll find out soon enough," Atlas said.

It was starting to get late, and Jack noticed.

"Well guess I have to get home now, thanks for the booze," Jack said, and stood. Atlas did the same.

"No problem Jack. I'll see you around, and may the sun light your way!" Atlas said. Jack nodded, and they both shook hands, and Jack went his way.

When he got home he placed the food he bought on the table, and proceeded upstairs. He removed his jacket, boots, and socks, and laid down on his bed, and drifted of to sleep.

The next morning Jack decided to check out the job Erend told him about. He got into his gear, went downstairs, took an apple for a quick breakfast, and headed over to the location Erend told him about.

A little later he arrived at a building that looks a old abandoned warehouse. He opened the door, and closed it. He walked a little deeper into the warehouse when a group of men surrounded him, but before they attacked Jack they were cut-off.

"Stop!" Erend said."He's clear." The men lowered their weapons, and let Jack pass.

"Jack great to see ya!" Erend greeted the newly employed bounty hunter.

"You to, you said you had a job for me," Jack told him.

"Yes I did, follow me," Jack followed Erend to a small room. "By the way, nice job on what you did last night, the people are starting to like you!"

"Heh, yeah," Jack said.

The two eventually arrived at a room where there was a huge table, and map on that table, with specific points on it.

"What are those points?" Jack asked, while examining the map.

"Those are active bandit camps, and last known locations of some people," Erend explained. "Now here's the job," He pulled out a poster from a crate, and handed it to Jack. "That guy is has a rep for blowing up outposts, and stealing stuff from villages. Your job is to find the guy, and bring him to us," Erend explained.

"Okay, where was he last spotted?"

"We believe he has a camp out here in the desert camping with a bunch of other guys, if not then maybe he moved, but he'd most likely still be around that area," Erend explained.

"Alright, just give me a minute, and I'll get going," Jack said, and left the room. He sorted out his things on a table outside, and took only the things he thought were needed for the job before leaving.

Once he was outside meridian he checked the map, and started heading over to the location the camp was suspected to be. Jack knew it would be a long walk, so he needed a ride, but the problem was that pretty much every automated vehicle ceased to exist. So he had to resort to something else; there was one thing though. The machines used a signal in order to function, but if he hijacked that signal, change a few lines of code, and he might be able to hitch himself a ride.

He headed over to one of the broadhead sites, and tried it out. Unlike Aloy's focus which was the civilian version Jacks focus was the military version which means it can do more, and survive more. Jack hid in the tall grass, and waited for one of them to come closer. A minute passed, and a broadhead came to view, it came close enough for Jack to begin. He started up the signal interceptor, and chose the right signal, once he got the right signal he changed a specific line of code, and...the hack was complete, and the broadhead was his. He stood from the tall grass, approached the broadhead, climbed on it, figured out how to control it, and rode away.

Jack was still getting introduced to the controls so the ride to his destinations was extra bumpy, and he accidentally ran into some things, and even fell off a few time, but he still managed to get there; once he was there he tied the broadhead to a tree to make sure it didn't get away, and walked to the camp site. He climbed a small raised platform overlooking the camp, and surveyed the area. There was a campfire with around four men around with their weapons, a tent, and a cart filled with different goods.

"One of those guys has to be the target," He softly whispered to himself. He needed to identify them first, but he has to live up to the saying "act now ask questions later".

He could shoot them, but that would most definitely kill them, and he doesn't have non-lethal rounds, so he resorted to a flashbang grenade. He pulled the pin, angled his throw, released the lever, and threw the grenade. The grenade flew, and landed right to one of the men, he noticed it, and clearly he didn't know what it was so he picked it up, and examined it. The grenade detonated releasing a loud bang, and a bright flash, but it didn't hurt any of them, besides the guys hand which was burned a little bit. The men were immobilized, they heard nothing but ringing, and saw nothing but white brightness. They had no idea what was going on. Jack saw this as an opportunity to capture them. He got out of his cover, and approached the group; the effects of the flashbang didn't affect one of them as much of the others because he reached for a knife, and tried to rush Jack, he raised his rifle against the attacker, and yelled "freeze", but the attacker kept coming at him, so he was forced to put him down. Jack pumped a few shots of lead into the guy's gut, and he was killed instantly. Jack decided to clean up the mess later, and keep the remaining guys at bay, he took a line of rope from his bag, and tied up each of the guy arms, and legs, after that he identified one of the men as his target, and loaded him and the other two on the cart. He then buried the dead guy's body, and attached the cart to the broadhead.

An hour later he returned to meridian, Erend, and his men waited at the end of the bridge. They had a look of surprise when they saw Jack with the criminals, and most of the stolen stuff. Jack hopped of the broadhead, and Erend's men secured the three criminals.

"Sorry, there were four of them, but I had to put one of them down," Jack apologized.

"Relax kid, you got the main priority anyway," Erend tilted his head over to the leader of the pack, now being escorted away in chains. Erend reached into his coat, and tossed Jack a small pouch of metal shards. "There's more from where that came from, and that job was only a warm up, the better ones are all posted on a wall at the city center."

Jack smiled, and put the pouch in his jacket."Thanks," Jack said.

"No problem, you earned it," Erend told him."Good luck in your new job!"

"Will be, thanks again, and good luck to you too," Jack told Erend, and they left the area. Jack returned to his apartment, and celebrated his success with dinner, and a nice nap.

* * *

3 months later...

It had been almost four months since Jack crawled out from that bunker. His bounty hunter work was very beneficial for him, and for the land since he's wiping out the bad guys, plus the pay is really good; he thinks that in a few weeks he'll be able to get himself a new home. He was also even able to gain the trust of the people of meridian, the king even gave him a medal.

Later on he started to run into some problems, like his ammo. He knew he can't just go to a sporting goods store, and buy extra ammo; he thought he was gonna have to resort to bows, and arrows like everyone else, but then he had his lucky break. He went out once to map out the lands to see the best places to set traps in or where the best resources were when he found ANOTHER abandoned underground military base, and this one contained all the things he needed. He was able to solve his ammo problem, and he was even able to find a bullet press so he could just refill used casings; gunpowder wasn't a problem because he can just buy the components to make make gunpowder. He also found a load of explosives, and a bunch of other goodies which he kept for later.

Another couple of months later…

Jack knew he needed to get out of that cramped up apartment in the city so he moved a mile southeast of the city where he built himself a cabin. It was any typical log cabin, but he could store more things in it, and beside it he made a blacksmith shop which completely solves his ammo problem because he can now make more bullets, and he doesn't have to pick up the used casings; brass and lead was easy to obtain. He also even stripped the solar panels from the back of a snapmaw, and put it on the roof of his house, repaired, and modified an old gasoline generator he found, and now he had electricity.

1 week later…

Jack was tired, he bagged six guys today, traveled the distance it would take to walk from san francisco to sacramento, and made up to 3000 shards; overall it was a long day. Erend sent a guy to tell him that he had a special job for him, but he needed to come in early, really early. So when he called it a day at around 12:00 am in the morning he returned to his starting apartment. Jack opened the door, went upstairs, crashed on the bed, and expected at least five hours of sleep.

Three hours of being asleep later there was a loud bang which made Jack jump out of his sleep, stand up, grab his rifle, and other weapons, and ran outside to check it out.

* * *

 **Again thank you guys for reading, and please leave a review, tell me your feedback, but for now I'll see you all in the next one. :)**


	9. Chapter 8:Assault On The Sun

**Hey guys welcome back. Im sorry for the delay, but here the next chapter. Its quite short.**

 **Anyway guys enjoy. :)**

* * *

Jack slipped on his jacket, grabbed his rifle, and a small bag filled with grenades, basic survival gear, and a first aid kit, and ran outside. He got out of the apartment, and saw pure anarchy. There were civilians there were civilians running in all directions while screaming in fear, buildings were on fire, and there were some wounded civilians on the street. Jack caught one of the bystanders.

"Whats happening?" He asked.

"There was an attack!" The woman said. Jack let her go, and she ran for safety. Jack went to the source of the fire while keeping his rifle trained. He saw a madman chasing a woman with an axe on hand. Jack raised his rifle, and delivered one clean shot to the head putting the man down. He saw another man, but this man was sprinting, and making rabid animal noises with what looks like a bomb strapped to him, the man sprinted towards a building, and jumped through the window, and the building exploded. Jack ducked down, and covered his head. He stood back up, and examined the scene.

"What the hell?" He asked himself. He has seen men run up to things with a bomb strapped on them before, but they did it for a significant reason. The one he just witnessed made no sense.

More of them came in waves, so Jack set his rifle to full auto, and began to lay some pain.

Jack burned through his fifth mag before he could get to the wall. There was a huge hole on the wall, and carja soldiers were doing their best to hold of the attackers with bows, and arrows. Jack looked around, and until he found Erend.

"What happened here?" Jack asked him.

"I don't know, they just appeared out of nowhere. The first one came in with blaze bombs strapped to their chest, and kept coming until the wall was breached. Then more of them came with other weapons," Erend explained. Jack surveyed the situation.

"Get men, and barricades down there!" Jack ordered Erend, and he nodded. Erend made gave a signal to one of the soldiers, and he rallied more soldiers. They grabbed anything in reach like sacks full of things, chairs tables, and even fallen debris to create a blockade. Jack climbed down to support the men at the bottom. He set up at the middle, aimed his rifle, and began firing. Jack emptied his bag of explosives, and pulled the pin on each grenade, and threw them.

Jack later realized that he was running out of ammo, and he wasn't the only one. The carja archers arrow supply also began to run dry, and more, and more hostiles piled up. Jack needed to think of a different solution. He saw a hose pumping up water to douse the fires, but Jack also saw a bunch of blaze barrels. Jack took the hose, and disconnected it's water supply, and reconnected it to the blaze barrels, and threw the hose to the top of the wall, Jack climbed up, and put the hose on the edge of the wall. He turned the valve, and the hose began spitting blaze, he took out flip lighter from his pocket, and brought the end near the current.

"EAT THIS SUCKERS!" He yelled to the incoming men. Jack lit the blaze, and it turned into a flamethrower. Jack turned the end of the house to aim it from side to side, as it cooked the attackers. The attackers were frightened as the wall of stone protecting the city of meridian turned into a wall of fire. Their numbers dropped rapidly, and they all retreated. Jack noticed they were retreating as the blaze supply has gone dry. Jack put the hose down, and looked at the city. The battle was over with victory going to the carja, but the scars were still there, and there were a lot of them.

* * *

Dawn break.

After last night's attack the city of Meridian was in total lockdown. No one was allowed to come in or out. Carja soldiers roamed the streets in formation while on high alert.

Jack walked the streets of Meridian trying to find Erend. He came across a lot of wounded people just laying on the side waiting to be treated, Carja armed patrols, and people running around with buckets full of water trying to put out the fires.

Jack eventually found Erend in a tent with some other men.

"Erend," He called out."Said you wanted to see me."  
"Yeah I did come here," He said. They went outside, and Erend began.

"The job I told you about was to hunt down this guy," He said.

"Who is this guy?" Jack asked.

"We don't know, we only know him by the Damned, He's responsible for the bigger crimes, the guys you busted before were just the little guys, this guy is the big one, He also leads a new super-bandit group called the The New World order, and that group is the one responsible for the attack last night after we found their logo on one of the corpses of the attackers. One of our spies infiltrated sunfall which is the capital of The New World Order. Our spy came across him, but he was wearing a mask so we couldn't identify him, he followed him to a room where there were a bunch of guys mixing up some components, and turning them into little berry like objects in different colors, but what happened next was shocking. They tested it out on a person, and whatever those thing were it somehow has the ability to corrupt people," Erend explained.

"Okay so what's in it for me?" Jack asked.

"Our spy has located more places where the berry things are made. Your job is to find those places, destroy them, gather intelligence, and if possible track down the Damned, and kill him or arrest him," Erend said.

"Okay i'll do it," Jack said.

Erend gave him a map of the locations of places where they create the berry things, and Jack was getting ready. Erend told him that he'll pay Jack a ton of money if he accomplishes it, but Jack told him he didn't need to do that. Jack felt like he needed to do this for all the people that was lost last night, and not for the money. Jack went home, and stocked up his gear. He grabbed a small backpack and filled it with explosives, survival gear, and medical gear, he stocked up his grenades, refiled his magazines, cleaned up the barrel of his rifle, fixed up his pistol, and he was ready to go. But before he left he removed one of the floorboards of his cabin, and took out an RPG-7 anti-tank rocket launcher with seven extra shots he kept in a separate bag: four high explosives, and three armour piercing, and one thermobaric shot. It was one of the 'goodies' he kept for later. After he made sure he had everything he needed he was on his way.

Jack was back at the desert. He came across a bandit camp so he decided to clear it out. After he took out everyone in the camp he went searching for anything he could use in the camp. But he didn't know that one of the bandits was hiding in a bush, and waiting for Jack to make a mistake. Jack put his stuff down, knelt down, and started digging through a chest. The bandit carefully got out of his hiding spot, and slowly and quietly approached Jack as he cluelessly kept digging through the chest of stuff. A figure stood a few meters away with a bow. The bandit pulled out a knife, and approached Jack, once he got into knife range he retracted his arm, and waited for a moment. But before he could stab Jack an arrow shot his knife of of his hand. The impact of the arrow made a sound which alerted Jack, but the figure loaded another arrow into her bow, and shot the bandit in the head. Jack rolled over, grabbed his rifle, and hid behind a boulder. Jack took a heartbeat to identify the person before putting his rifle down.

The figure also put her bow down, and revealed herself.

"You never seem to get yourself out of trouble, do you?" Aloy asked, and put her bow behind her back.

"Yes, What the hell are you doing here?" Jack asked.

"I heard about what happened in meridian so I started my own man hunt," Aloy said. "What about you?"

"Same thing you're doing," Jack said as he picked up his stuff.

"You're going after the Damned?"

"Yeah, and by the way I got this, so you should go home or risk getting yourself into deep trouble," Jack said, and began to walk away.

"I'm coming with you," Aloy caught up with him.

"No you are not," Jack said.

"Why not?" Aloy asked, and Jack stopped.

"Look I appreciate it that you want to help, but where i'm going is full of crazy stuff you can't okay," Jack flashed her a smile, but she just stood there with her mouth wide open. That talk offended Aloy a little.

Aloy put her hands on her hips. _Girl rant incoming…_

"Excuuuuze me, but I happen to have experienced crazy things also! I am perfectly capable of handling myself so I am coming with you, and you can't do anything to stop me!" Aloy argued. Jack couldn't say no to that. Jack took the RPG from his bag, and gave it to Aloy.

"Hold this," He said.

"What is this thing?" Aloy asked.

"It makes things go boom, so don't mess with it," Jack said, "now c'mon we got a long way ahead of us."

They started heading of to one of the locations stated on Jacks map.

* * *

 **Pls leave a review to tell me how much you liked the story.**

 **I hope you all enjoy. :)**


	10. Chapter 9: Psycho

**Hey guys welcome back, this is chapter 9 of the story.**

 **I hope you guys enjoy this part of the story. :)**

* * *

Jack and Aloy has been walking for an hour and a half now. Jack checked his map to see if they were getting close. As they walked Aloy spotted something at the distance.

"Look," Aloy pointed.

They both stopped and Jack took out a pair of binoculars and brought it to his eyes. He saw a small wooden shack being guarded by a bunch of guys. Jack zoomed in closer and saw concealed weapons.

"I think that's the target," Jack said. The two got a little bit closer planned out their attack.

"Ok this is what we're gonna do, I suggest that you stay here and pick off some of the guy while I sneak in through the-," Jack was cut off, "What the?" Aloy somehow disappeared from his side. Jack looked over the huge area in front of him and tried to find Aloy, as he looked he saw her already sneaking around the back. Jack took a rifle suppressor and inserted it on the end of his rifle barrel. Aloy began silent killing the guys while Jack picked off some of them with his rifle. After a minute or so all the guys outside were taken care off, Jack moved forward while Aloy entered the shack. Aloy saw a bunch of barrels filled with weird berry like objects. One of the bandits came out of hiding, quietly approached Aloy, and tried to stab her, if it wasn't for Jack who came behind, and shot the guy.

"Next time, don't just run off, and be more careful," Jack told Aloy.

"What is this stuff," Aloy pointed at the barrels. Jack picked up a pinch full of the weird substance and examined it.

"I knew it," Jack said.

"What is it?" Aloy asked.

"Its one of the evils done by humankind of the Old Ones, it's called synthetic drugs, but whatever this one is its very strong," Jack said.

"What does it do?"

"Consume it, it would get to your head, corrupts your mind, it makes you wanting for more, and more over and over again. Sadly that's how it destroyed lives."

"Why didn't your people try to stop it?"

"We did, we tried, but not everyone listened. Governments around the globe would illegalize it, but it wasn't enough, not even a death sentence," Jack said. "Keep searching the place, maybe there's a data log or a note or something," Jack said, and they started digging.

A minute later Aloy opened up a cabinet, and found a data log. Jack came over, and retrieved the information.

"Hmm, they call this stuff _Psycho,_ and it looks like they're paying their men with it, no wonder they just agreed to run into meridian with bombs strapped onto them," Jack said.

"Why would they do that?"

"I told you, it corrupts your mind, you don't know what you're doing until after you just died. You think that you'll still get paid even when you're dead, hell you'll even forget about death," Jack replied.

They kept looking for some more stuff until they had to leave. They had a debate on whether they should bury the stuff or burn them. Burying all of them would take too much time and effort so they decided to burn them since it was faster, and it didn't give off any harmful gasses. They collected all of the blaze stockpiles, covered the shack with it, and roasted it.

"So where now?"

Jack pulled out his map, and marked the point of the shack with an X, and he picked out the next locations.

"Hmm let's go here," Jack said, and they were on their way.

* * *

Weeks later…

Jack and Aloy was going around the land and destroying the New World Order outposts. The Order sent out war parties to track and exterminate them but it all resulted to failure. With the amount of things they blew up it's no surprise that there would be news on them.

At sunfall one of the New World Order officers runs the hallways of the castle to the throne room, when he arrived there he went over to the person only known as the Damned. The Damned wore a mask preventing anyone from seeing his face. The officer then knelt down and bowed his head.

"What is it?" The Damned asked.

"Our outposts are being destroyed by a couple o' great one," The officer replied.

"Have you tried sending our troops to terminate them?"

"Yes I have but they seem to always be one step ahead of us," The officer said. "What do you suppose I do?"

The Damned stood from the throne of the former shadow carja, and began to think.

"You go now, I have a plan for this," The Damned said.

"O' great one, do you mind if asked for some more Psycho?" The officer asked.

"Very well then, since you have served with much loyalty, I will give you some," The Damned pulled out a small metal box, and took out a small portion of Psycho, and gave it to the officer.

"Thank you very much O' great one," The officer said and left. The officer went outside, and started to consume the substance. After that he began to experience some weird things.

The Damned walked over to the wall of the throne room, and pressed a button; a passageway was revealed along with stairs going down. He went down the stairs, and retrieved a lantern glowing with red light.

"I need your help old friend, we are being messed with."

The damned brought the lantern outside, and attached it to an antenna tower.

A day later the Order set up something for Jack and Aloy.

Jack and Aloy were heading over to their next target. The place was completely empty when Jack looked at it from a safe distance. They were walking closer when a radio signal landed on the ground in front of them. Jack stopped Aloy and they both drew out their weapons. Jack approached slowly to where the radio signal landed, and began stepping on the ground.

"Its nothing let's go," Jack said. But then then ground started to shake and Jack almost lost his balance; at first they thought it was an earthquake, but then a machine came out of the ground.  
"Oh hell, get to cover," Jack said. He grabbed Aloy, and ran cover.

The corrupter saw them and began firing at them with its grenade launcher. Aloy shot fire arrows at the machine while Jack switched to armor piercing rounds and unleash a volley of shots.

"That's an FAS-ACA3 Scarab," Jack said.

"A corrupter," Aloy said.

Jack aimed high to try and hit the critical spots on the main body of the machine while Aloy kept setting it on fire and aiming for the legs.  
"Don't even try with the legs, armor is too thick for a bow and arrow," Jack said. Aloy then began to focus on the weak spots on the main body.

The corrupter kept resisting each shot they threw onto the machine until Jack gave up trying to shoot it.

"Thats it im not wasting my time anymore. Aloy keep distracting it, I have a plan!" Jack said. He took out a ready made C4 from his bag, armed it, and ran over to the machine. He jumped and threw the explosive at the body of the machine; the explosive stuck perfectly on the body of the machine.

"Aloy get down!" Jack said.

Aloy ran behind a boulder and took cover while Jack ducked down, and took out a detonator. He pulled out the safety and squeezed the detonator. The machine turned into a fireball of burning steel and fire.

Jack and Aloy got up and examined the wreck.

"I thought you killed these things," Jack said.

"Not all of them were activated, some were missed, but even though they shouldn't be activating, I stabbed HADES with the master override," Aloy replied. "But."

"But what?" Jack asked.

"But the master override didn't really kill HADES, but only kept him from doing any harm," Aloy said.

"And?"

"HADES might still be alive, he can't do damage right now, but with some help he might be able to get back to his full potential."

"So you're telling me that not are we just facing a bunch of really high goons, but we might also have to face a machine designed built only to kill ?" Jack asked.

"Yeah basically," Aloy replied.

"Well, shit" Jack said.

"I said might, and what does that word mean?"

"It's an expression, it means our situation just got a hell of a lot worse than what it was an hour ago," Jack replied.

The two stood at the spot for a minute thinking on what they should do.

"Can you track where the signal came from, with all the stuff you have?" Aloy asked.

"I can, but i'll need the brain of the corrupter and judging how big that explosion was the brain is most likely destroyed," Jack said.

"Then what do we do, we need to find out who did this," Aloy said.

Jack thought for a second.

"I have an idea, but you may not like it," Jack said.

"What is it?" Aloy asked.

"We could go to sunfall and dig the guys there for answers," Jack suggested.

"Are you crazy? We'll die," Aloy said, "but it's all we can do, let's do it then."

"Awesome, we'll leave for sunfall tomorrow. Lets meet at meridians entrance," Jack said.

The two went to their separate ways to grab the things they need, and get some rest before they leave tomorrow.

* * *

At first light Jack grabbed his stuff and headed to the rendezvous point at meridians entrance. Once he got there he saw Aloy already there leaning on a pole waiting while looking bored. Jack waved over to Aloy and walked over to her.

Aloy yawned, "What took you so long?" She asked.

"Guess I overslept," Jack said, " You ready?"

"Yeah let's go."

The two set out for their objective.

It took them the whole day to get to sunfall and once they did they planned out what they were going to do; Jack kept a close eye on Aloy to make sure she doesn't just disappear like last time as they discussed the plan. The main gate was heavily guarded, and blowing a hole through the wall would result to the entire city being alerted. So they decided to sneak in through the back where it's not so heavily guarded, and made their way to the castle. The used the cover of the surrounding buildings to hide from the citizens and patrols; sunfall was a mess so it didn't matter if the were out in the open anyway. The eyes of the people were all bloodshot due to lack of sleep and drug overdose.

Once they were in the castle they started to search for any evidence on the machines. They got to an open area in the middle of the castle and there was an antenna tower and a lantern glowing a red light attached to the bottom. The lantern emitted radio signals which shot out of the tower.

"Well there's one thing, let's keep looking," Jack said.

They searched further into the castle until they got to the throne room. The room was empty so it was the best time to search it. There was a computer on the side of the room Jack went over to it began downloading all the information in it. As they waited for the info to be downloaded someone walked into the room.

"Good evening," The man said. Jack and Aloy quickly drew out their weapons and pointed them at the person, "I've been expecting the two of you, please take a seat the two of you must be very tired," The man nodded his head over to the sofas in the room.

"Are you the Damned?" Jack asked.

"Yes I am. I also know the both of you, and that means you Lieutenant Jackson R. Smith of the United States army Rangers... Eh how many tours was it again?" The Damned asked, while Jack just stood silently while he clutched his rifle.

"How?" He asked but was ignored

"Oh yeah only three tours with the 3rd ranger battalion before you were all replaced by machines. How unfortunate, I must admit that i'm a fan of the rangers too," The Damned said, and looked over to Aloy who also stood still, "And now with you Aloy anointed of the Nora."

"How?" The two asked in unison.

"How what?"

"How did you know, about us?" Aloy asked.

"I have my ways," The Damned replied.

"Okay I'd have enough of this, take off that mask lets see who you really are," Jack demanded.

"Very well," The Damned agreed, and took off his mask. What was revealed on the other side shocked Aloy.

"Sylens?" Aloy said.

"Sylens, the guy you said helped you save the world is the guy in front of us who also ordered the killing of hundreds of innocent carja citizens?" Jack said.

"Sylens what the hell are you doing?" Aloy asked.

"What is necessary," he said and poured himself a drink, "After the battle in meridian, and after you drove my lance into HADES a part of it managed to escape and once again find its way to me. I made it explain to me why it all of those things to try and start another Faro Plague and once it did explain to me it all made sense," Sylens sat down on the throne. "It told me that it was only trying to fulfil its intended function of resetting the earth if GAIA made a mistake and GAIA did make a mistake, it created world filled with humans but those humans did not have the knowledge of the Old Ones. Well as a contingency the other subordinate functions - including HADES - were filled with knowledge, just incase APOLLO was corrupted or in our case: someone turns on the team."

"What was in it for you?" Jack asked.

"HADES needed my help so I gave it help. It gave me instructions in making a hallucinogenic drug to get people to help assist me in helping HADES so that he could fulfil he his function," Sylens continued, "Come join me, Aloy I know that you're tired of being labeled a god, join me and together we can bring back the old world."

Aloy was tired of being called a god or the anointed and stuff like that, she just wanted to live life normally and the old world holds the key to that. But she also knows that the price is too great if she decided to bring back the old world.

"I'm sorry Sylens but the price is too much for me to pay, so i'm going to have to go against you," Aloy replied.

"Okay then; what about you Jack? I know that you want your world back," Sylens asked Jack.

This was a really tough question for Jack. On the outside he showed nothing but in the inside he wanted the world of before his world to come back to him. He wanted air-conditioning, internet, TV, insulated houses, warm water, and other things back to him. But he has been in the new world long enough and seen enough things to challenge his want for the new world.

"Sylens, you right about me wanting my old world back so I think i'll go with you," Jack said and pointed his rifle at Aloy while she just gave him a look of disbelief.

"Jack what are you doing?" Aloy asked but got no response.

"Wise choice, now end it," Sylens ordered.

"Jack don't do this," Aloy said.

Jack thought about his decision some more.

"You know what, I think i'll pass. I think I like my new world better," Jack said.

Time slowed down, Jack pulled out a frag grenade, pulled off the safety pin with his teeth, let the safety lever fly and threw the grenade at Sylens. Jack lowered his rifle and grabbed Aloy, and covered her from the blast with his body.

After the grenade detonated he got off Aloy and surveyed the area.

"He got away, dammit," Jack muttered in frustration.

"You, saved me," Aloy told Jack.

"I couldn't do it, I couldn't kill you, I wanted my world back, but I knew the price to pay," Jack replied.

"Thanks I guess," Aloy said.

"No problem," Jack responded.

"That was a very unwise move Jack," Sylens said through some kind of PA system, "by doing what you did, i'll make sure that you and everyone who saw you will regret it! 1000 psycho will be give to whoever can catch the intruders!"

The doors began to bang violently until they broke down. A horde of crazy men with weapons came in and looked at the two.

"There they are get them!" One of the said, and they all started running up to them.

"RUN!" Jack yelled and they both started running for their lives.

The two kept running and running while not looking back. They lost the horde for a little bit so Jack stopped to lay down a bunch of claymore mines.

"This should hold them back for a little bit," Jack said and continued running.

The claymores detonated killing some of the attackers, and causing the ceiling to collapse and block their path, but they quickly rerouted to another path.

Jack and Aloy arrived at a large space of the castle where at the end was an open area, and beyond that was a hundred foot drop to a lake. The horde caught up to them, and blocked all exits.

"Were trapped," Aloy said as she continued running.

"No where not, run straight and jump once you get to the end," Jack said.

They kept running until they got to the end and they jumped. They fell a hundred foot down into the lake with a huge splash as they impacted. The horde threw projectiles, shot arrows, and observed to see if they were still alive. No one resurfaced.

"Their done for, let's go home," One of them said and all of them walked away.

Jack and Aloy resurfaced and quickly caught their breaths. Jack checked himself for injuries and noticed he lost something.

"Hold on," he said and dove back down to retrieve what he had lost and quickly resurfaced. "Almost lost my rifle back there."

As they floated on the water a boat approached them. They both thought that it was an enemy boat, and prepared, but they then discovered it was friendly.

"Good evening," Atlas called out to them as he steered the boat closer to the two. Atlas's men helped pull the two out of the water and into the boat.

"Thanks for coming," Jack told Atlas.

"No problem, I owed you anyway," Atlas said. "Who's the fine lady?"

"Atlas this is Aloy, Aloy that is Atlas," Jack said.

"Hey," Atlas said.

"Hi," Aloy responded.

"Alright Atlas get us back to meridian," Jack said, and Atlas nodded.

Once they got back to meridian Jack and Aloy reviewed the data gathered from the computer.

"Okay lets see what we got here," Jack said and put down a holo-projector.

The projector showed a map of the world with a radiation symbol on the top right corner. Small red dots began to appear all over the map, some in land and some in sea. There was a counter on the top left corner, and it counted up to 15,000 when it stopped. Then the word armed was displayed on the entire map in bold red letters.

"What are those red dots?" Aloy asked.

"That is the number of weapons of mass destruction still in the world," Jack said.

"Weapons of mass destruction?"

"Yup, the Faro Plague wasn't the only way life on earth would've been eradicated," Jack said. "And this weapon of mass destruction is one of worst ones, we call it the nuclear bomb."

Jack cut to a video showing the nuclear bomb, "The thing is designed to blow up entire cities and those guys want to launch all of them."

"How do we stop it?" Aloy asked.

"Well we gotta get to the central control panel, hack one of the satellites - if there's still any satellites - and send a message to all of the launch platforms and they should all stop," Jack explained.

"Where is this central control panel you speak off?"

"Lemme see," Jack brought up the map and tried to find it. "It's in...Washington DC."

"A city?"

"One of the largest."

"Well what are we waiting for let's go then," Aloy said.

* * *

 **That's it for now everyone, and I want to ask you guys a question:**

 **Rear turret cannon or missiles, please leave your answer in the review column.**

 **Anyway guys I hope ya'll enjoyed and I'll see ya'll in the next one. :)**


	11. Chapter 10:Fallout

**Hey guys welcome back.**

 **Sorry for being out for a little bit, but some stuff has happened.**

 **Anyway guys, here's the next chapter, and I hope all of you would enjoy :)**

* * *

You can say Jack is in deep as crud. Not only is he facing an insane guy with an army of drug addicted psychopaths, he's facing an insane guy with an army of drug addicted psychopaths, and also somehow acquired a nuclear capability.

In the early 2030's every country with a nuclear capability decided to upgrade their launch platforms. The first were the russians, they created ICBM silos that can last for 2000+ years, and the second were the americans, they developed drone submarines; the drone submarines are smaller than the ordinary conventional submarines, but since it was unmanned the submarines had more space for weaponry. And it had nuclear-fusion reactor that could keep the submarine underwater for a long a time. After that other countries followed in buffing up their nuclear capabilities; china had the bright idea of creating orbital (satellite) nuclear missile launch platforms.

Basically Jack is screwed, including thousands or even millions of innocent lives across the new world.

Jack knows that the override codes are in washington DC at the president's bunker, after that he has to get to another bunker but this time under the pentagon. The control panel is there, he has to enter in the first line of code, pray that the signal relay is still operational - it most likely won't be- , and hack the satellite, after that he has to connect every launch platform and enter the second line of code. Seems easy enough, well...wrong. After a few minutes of digging through the files he found out that there was a seventy two hour countdown.

Jack quickly ran home to grab the stuff he needed, as he was leaving he noticed that Aloy followed him, and was hiding behind a bush. He confronted her, and Aloy said that she wanted to come, Jack did his best to try, and convince Aloy to stay, but he was unsuccessful.

"I know a site nearby where we can get some striders to go wherever this city is," Aloy suggested.

They could get a strider to speed up their journey, but they would get there under thirty-six hours only if their lucky, and Jack never liked relying on luck. The changed landscape, and herds of machines is gonna slow them down. And by the time they get there, the nukes would've dropped already.

"No, it still would take too long for us to get there," Jack said.

"What do we do then?"

Jack thought for a second. He projected a holo-map through his focus, and picked where they needed to go first.

"Here, I found a place where we can hitch a ride, that's where we go first," Jack said.

"Where?"

"You'll find out soon enough, now let's go," Jack said, and they were on their way.

They headed east towards denver, then southeast of the ruins. They arrived at a fence, and beyond that was a huge open space. Jack cut a hole on the fence, and they went through.

"Before, this place was known as _Buckley air force base,_ this was a hub for storing and maintaining military technology of the old ones," Jack said.

They headed over to a hardened aircraft shelter, and stopped at the door. Jack brought down the door control panel, and hacked it. The door opened, and revealed a sight untouched for nearly a millenia.

"What is that?" Aloy asked.

"That is a VTOL. Its one of the more 'nice' creations of mankind. It's used to transport people, cargo, and in some occasions drop bombs," Jack said.

"What's it with you people, and turning nice things into weapons?"

"I don't know, never understood why myself," Jack replied.

When Jack took a minute to examine the aircraft he was surprised to find that it was in good working order, a bit dusty, but working. The VTOL sported two tilt-thruster gas turbine engines attached to the end of each wing, it also has a top speed of a subsonic 900 km/h. It also has two 30mm cannons in the front, a remote controlled turret with dual 20mm cannons at the back, and a max payload of 20,000 lbs.

Jack found a bunch of missiles, and a 5000 lbs bomb in the shelter nextdoor, but didn't take it since he didn't need it. The VTOL's fuel tank was still half full; Jack found some fuel barrels, and filled up the aircraft, he also fully loaded the guns on board with the ammo he found. With some help from Aloy they pushed the aircraft out of the shelter, they then entered it and put their stuff down and took their seats in the cockpit.

"Put this on your head," Jack said, he gave Aloy the headset. Aloy complied and put it on.

Jack was the captain and Aloy was the co-pilot (even though she doesn't anything about flying.)

It took some time for Jack to start up the aircraft, but he eventually managed to bring it back to life. Jack taxied the VTOl to the runway, and stopped. He secured his seatbelt, and Aloy's seatbelt. He did a quick preflight check before being satisfied.

"Have you ever flown before?" Jack asked Aloy.

"Uh, I tried to ride a stormbird I hijacked before, fell off as soon as I left the ground," Aloy replied.

Jack shrugged.

"Eh, good enough, hold on this is gonna be a bit bumpy," Jack said. He increased the throttle to full, and the aircraft sped across the runway. Once they were fast enough Jack pulled the control stick and the aircraft rose from the ground.

The aircraft climbed, and as it did Aloy looked down to land below.

"Whoa," She said as she gazed at the amazing sight.

"I know that feeling, had the same look on your face during the first time I flied," Jack said.

The aircraft reached its cruising altitude, and Jack set it to autopilot, and the VTOL slowed down.

"Alright at this speed we should be able to get to washington in a few hours, and Aloy, i'm gonna take a nap so I need you to do me a favor," Jack said.

"Okay what is it?" She asked.

"Alright first off don't touch any of the buttons, and second see that small screen with the green light and the blue line circling it, that's called radar, if anything comes close to us it will appear as a green dot, I want you to watch it, and tell me if anything pops up," Jack said.

"Okay, can do," Aloy replied.

Through his time with HADES Sylens was able to access an old military spy satellite that's still orbiting the earth. He used it to do surveillance on Jack and Aloy.

His satellite detected Jack and Aloy in a old VTOL heading for washington. They were already in the air so a ground based attack wasn't gonna do anything. But there was one thing.

He went outside, and caught up to his officer.

"So, how's our subject?" He asked.

"It's doing great o' great one, the effects of the corruption is going deep into its mainframe," The officer replied.

They arrived at a large space, and saw a corrupted stormbird with men trying to hold them down.

"How is the reviving of the corruption going?" Sylens asked.

"Its going great, production has doubled, we may have an army of corrupted in a few weeks," The officer said.

"Very good, when are we gonna test it?"

"Its ready to be tested, we were waiting on your command."

"Okay."

Sylens and the officer arrived at a larger open space with a lot more corrupted stormbirds being held down also.

It has been an hour since they took off. Jack was dead asleep while Aloy just stared at the horizon in front of her, and thought. As she did a single green dot appeared on the radar screen followed by a beep. Aloy leaned in to take a closer look. The radar signal hit the green dot again and it split into two. The object appeared to be coming from behind them, and each time it the signal hit them they would get closer and closer, and even double in numbers.

Aloy grabbed Jack's shoulder, and began shaking him.

"Jack Jack wake up!" Aloy said.

"I'm up, i'm up, what's happening?" He asked.

"Aloy pointed at the radar screen.

"Look."

He saw multiple unknown objects approaching the VTOL. He peeked out the windshield, but couldn't see anything; the windshield didn't show the angle he wanted to look to, and they were in the clouds.

Jack continued to look then something flew past over them only missing them by an inch.

"Woah!" Jack pulled back from the sudden surprise.

"What was that?" Aloy asked.

"I don't know, it was moving too fast," Jack replied.

He tried the infrared sight, but it also no use, the clouds were too thick.

A few seconds later they got out off the clouds and into open sky. What Jack and Aloy saw next took them back.

They saw that they were surrounded by hundreds of stormbirds and glinthawks.

"Are they supposed to fly in formation like that?" Jack asked.

"Glinthawks yeah they do, but not stormbirds," Aloy replied.

"I don't think those are just any stormbird or glinthawk, I think their corrupted," Jack said.

The stormbirds and glinthawks began bomb rushing the aircraft, but Jack noticed this, and performed evasive maneuvers.

"Performing evasive maneuvers, switching to manual control, make sure your seatbelt is really tight Aloy," Jack said.

Aloy began tightening her seatbelt, then holding on for dear life.

"What are you gonna do?" Aloy asked.

"Something you're not gonna like," Jack said.

He pushed the control stick down, and the VTOL began to dive. The two took some G-force when they dived at a speed of 300 knots, but they were alright. Jack leveled out the VTOL when they were at an altitude of only 1000 feet above ground. Some of the glinthawks and stormbirds pursuing them crashed into the ground, but many of them was still in pursuit. They were trying to crash into the VTOL to kill Jack and Aloy.

Jack needed to get away, he saw a canyon that's pretty narrow, so Jack flew into it to try and lose some of the company there. It worked a little bit, because of the fact that the glinthawks were in a cluster, and they started to collide with each other or crash into the canyon walls, but it still wasn't enough. The stormbirds began shooting their lightning attacks at the VTOL. They were hit, but not bad. It was too close for comfort.

"Aloy flip that switch," Jack said.

She complied and flipped the switch. A visor came down from her headset.

"It's alright, you're now in control of the turret, see that joystick to your right," Jack pointed to her right. Aloy took the joystick.

"I got it," She replied.

"Okay when you move that around it will also move the turret so you can turn the guns to the target, okay on your visor is a reticle, do you see it?"

"Yeah."

"Keep the targets on the centre part of that reticle, now to shoot pull the trigger on the joystick, to reload press the red button on top of the joystick, to move turret move the joystick," Jack said.

"What?"

"Point and click," Jack vaguely said as he continued to navigate through the canyon.

Aloy took a minute to recall the steps before opening fire. The 20mm shells were very very effective, they just tore through the swarm of corrupted machines. But that also wasn't enough. The ancient 20mm cannon and turret started to malfunction, once every few minutes it would jam. So Jack had to make use of all the weapons on board, he did maneuvers so machines would fly to their front, and Jack would use the two 30mm cannons at the front of the aircraft to destroy them.

Jack began to realize that the VTOL only carried so much fuel, and ammo, eventually he was gonna run out. He only planned to fly straight to washington, he forgot to think about the other possibilities while he's enroute. And there was only so much supplies at the abandoned base. He saw the end of the canyon, there was a rock formation with a narrow gap in between the two mountains. Jack increased the throttle to full power and began to fly straight to the formation.

"Jack," Aloy said, "not that way."

"I know what i'm doing, you just gotta trust me," Jack said as he continued to get closer.

"Jack." Aloy said louder.

"I know what i'm doing."

"Jack!"

"Just trust me!"

They got closer and closer, and the anti-collision system rang up, and alerted Jack to go the other way, it beeped, and as they got closer the beeping got faster and faster.

Jack remained calm, but Aloy was breathing heavily.

"JACK!" She yelled at him.

He didn't respond.

The anti-collision system displayed how far they are from the end of the canyon.

 _100 meters…_

 _70 meters..._

 _50 meters…_

 _40 meters…_

 _30 meters…_

 _20 meters…_

 _10 meters…_

Time slowed down, Aloy closed her eyes, and awaited her faith. Until…

Jack tilted the VTOL to its side, and knife edged the narrow gap. They lost some paint, but they were still in one piece. The pursuing swarm of corrupted machines tried to stop, but failed to, and crashed into the end of the canyon.

"You can open your eyes now Aloy," Jack said.

Aloy slowly opened her eyes, and looked around, then began examining herself. She was still in one piece without any wounds or scars.

"I-I'm alive!" She said, followed by a repeated chuckles of relief.

"See, you can trust me, I won't get you killed," Jack said.

Aloy smiled at that remark, it was good to know.

They weren't out of danger though, the radar showed one more machine following them. It was another stormbird. It charged its lightning attack, and fired at them. It hit the right wing, and damaged it, but they could still fly.

"Aloy shoot at it!" Jack said.

"I can't, i'm out!" She said.

The stormbird charged its attack again, but before it could fire at the VTOL, the sky erupted with flak fire. The flak hit the stormbird, and it went down.

Then something completely unexpected happened, they were receiving a radio transmission. Jack decided to answer it. The signal was weak, but it was understandable.

 _Unknown flying vehicle, land on the black smoke or be fired upon…_

A plume of black smoke appeared at the ground.

Jack decided to comply at the transmission, and landed at the black smoke. The two got out of their seats, and grabbed their gear. Jack gave a countdown, and lowered the ramp. The two went outside with weapons up, and scanned the area. The source of the black smoke was a burning bonfire. Before Jack could say clear, armed men popped out of the bushes. Jack and Aloy stood at a position where they could easily retreat back inside while keeping their weapons up.

The men appeared to be dressed in wasteland outfits while some held bows and arrows and while some of them were holding guns, but the guns the men had were ancient compared to his rifle. They had weapons dating back to probably the early 1900's. They had guns like the M1 garand rifle, M1903 rifle, double barrel shotgun, an M3 grease gun, sten gun, trench gun, and one guy even had a long rifle. But even though their weapons looked like they were from the stone age, Jack still won't underestimate his opponent and they outnumber him, and Aloy. He's also seen a documentary of what the trench gun can do before, and it can do things that Jack didn't like.

After an awkward moment of silence, the men started to speak.

"What's your business here?" The man who appeared to be the leader with the grease gun said.

"Nothing, we're just passing, but were caught in trouble along the way," Jack replied. "Do mind putting your weapon down?"

The men were uneasy at the remark. "How would we know we can trust you?"

"Alright this is what we're gonna do, on the count of three we all put our weapons down," Jack suggested.

The men agreed along with Aloy.

"Okay on three, one...two...three," Jack put his weapon down, and the men, and Aloy followed. They all slung their weapons onto their backs, and approached each other.

"Whew, we coulda shot you back there boy," The eldest man said.

"Same here," Jack replied.

"What's your name son?" The man said.

"The names Jack, the girl over there is Aloy, how about you?"

"I'm Erin, nice to meet ya," He said, and they both shook hands. Erin turned to his men. "Well don't ya'll just stand there, introduce yourselves!"

"I'm Lance," the man with the M1903 said.

"I'm Dagger," the man with the garand said.

"I'm Striker," the man with the sten said.

"I'm Aron," The guy with the double barrel shotgun said.

"I'm Dent," The guy with the trench gun said.

"I'm Jeff," The guy with the long rifle said.

"I'm Armon," The guy with the bow said.

"And I'm Argon," The other guy with the bow said.

"Nice to meet all you," Aloy said.

"Come follow us," Erin said, and made a 'follow me' gesture with his right arm.

Jack and Aloy followed them to a fairly large village filled with people.

"So what's your heritage here?" Jack asked Erin.

"Oh yeah I forgot, we are the flaksmen tribe, we originally came from the oseram further west," Erin said.

"The oseram?" Aloy asked curiously.

"Yeah; about I forgot how long ago it was, but there was a detachment of a small group of oseram men and women, they headed east until they found this place, and decided to settle down here."

"Why did they detach from the main tribe?" Jack asked.

"None of us really knows, it was so long ago," Erin replied.

They continued to walk around the village, until they were at the outskirts again.

"What was that flak from earlier?" Jack asked.

"That," Erin pointed to a dug out position with an object under the camo netting. Erin signaled a bunch of men, and they pulled off the camo netting revealing a 40mm flak gun.

"Woah," Jack said out of amazement, "how did you even get that thing?"

"Some years back we had some stormbird and glinthawk problems and all we had were a bunch of bows and arrows that didn't really help at all, then one time me, and a bunch of other guys were searching the ruins of a city of the old ones when we fell into a hole, the hole led to a huge open area called 'the war museum', in there we found that gun, and two more of it, we also found the weapons we have now. We tore the big gun apart and put it back together again at the village, we also got it to work and found ammo for it, and that's how our stormbird and glinthawk problem was fixed," Erin explained.

As they continued walking Jack spotted some bigger guns, they were two really old 155mm artillery guns.

"What about those?" Jack pointed to the big guns, "What about those guns?"

"Oh, we found those down in that hole too, but we could never get them to work; we tried everything to repair it, but it didn't wanna happen, so we just left those two there until we decide to either scrap it for parts or find a way to fix it," Erin said.

They later returned to the village and gathered around a campfire.

"How did you connect to us with a radio signal?" Jack asked.

"Oh," He pointed to a wooden tower at the village center, " we have a shortwave radio up there, it was also part of the things we found down that hole, it took some time to repair, we eventually got it, but it still wasn't at the best shape."

"Okay," That explained the weak radio transmission.

"So, now it's my turn to ask questions, what's really your business around here?"

"Well as I told you, we were just passing by, but we got into a little bit of heat," that was an understatement, Aloy noticed, and gave a fake cough, Jack glared at her and continued to talk, "anyway we are really headed to the ruins you southeast from here."

"Why though?We've completely searched that place there's nothing else to find," Erin said.

"But there's still something somewhere there, and we need to get to it," Jack said.

"Well, okay then, the two of you don't seem to be a threat to my tribe so I wish the two of you goodluck," Erin said.

"Thanks, we're gonna need that."

The sun already started to set and it started to get dark.

"It's a bad idea to go into the ruins at night, there are things that hide in the ruins at day, and come out at night," Erin said.

"I guess we're staying here for the night then," Jack said.

"Alright then, there's an empty house back there, c'mon i'll show the both of you."

They followed Erin to a small wooden shack, inside was really small since there was only one bed.

"I'll leave this part to the two of you," Erin said and left.

There was a moment of awkward silence.

"Umm, you can sleep on the bed, I can sleep on the floor," Jack offered.

"No, you don't have too," Aloy said.

"What?" Jack had a confused look.

"I mean we can share the same bed," Aloy said.

"Huh?" Jack was really confused and really uncomfortable, did Aloy really just offer that they sleep with each other. Maybe it wasn't weird here in the future for you to sleep with someone else. Even in the other way.

"Okay then…" Jack replied, and just complied with it.

They put their stuff down, and Jack removed his shoes while Aloy removed her hunting outfit. Jack did his best to look away, but couldn't, there was a strange force that overpowered him, and kept his eyes anchored to Aloy as she slipped on her night outfit. Maybe it was the fact that she was just really really really hot, and Jack cannot deny that no matter how much he tries.

Aloy slipped on her shirt, and looked over to her left (fortunately for Jack he was able to escape the trance and look away), and saw Jack removing his jacket before moving onto his light armored vest revealing a plain white shirt. Now it was Aloy's turn to be locked in. His muscles were huge, probably big enough to give Jack the strength to uproot a tree with his bare hands, which made Aloy wonder if he was also even a human being. Jack now looked to his right again, and Aloy quickly turned away her head, she couldn't help blush then smile. Jack also let out a small grin.

They finished up, and laid on the bed. There was also one blanket, but it was big enough to fit the both of them, but the cold was still able to pierce through. Jack thought it would feel a little less awkward if he'd sleep facing away from Aloy, and just pretend that he was alone on the bed. It actually worked, he felt less awkward, but then this happened…

"Jack," Aloy said softly.

"Yeah?"

"Can you like hold me, it's really cold," Aloy said.

That would've been way too awkward for Jack to comply, but he couldn't blame her, he can feel how cold it was, even with the blanket, and it was enough to make him shiver a little bit. He could also hear Aloy's accelerated rate of breathing from the intense cold.

"Alright," Jack said, and rolled over and put his arm over her.

She was shivering really hard, and Jack could feel it. They got close, and added their body heat, Aloy's shivering and breathing slowly was lowered until she stopped shivering, and breath normally again. A minute later Aloy finally fell asleep.

Jack can't help but admit that he was actually enjoying this. Aloy's body was just so...He can't even describe it. Her hair was soft, and it smelled nice, despite the fact showers are almost non-existent in the future. Jack continued until he also drifted to sleep.

* * *

 **I hope that touch wasn't too weird, I'm still new to this anyway. And those 40mm flak guns and the two broken 155mm artillery guns will play a critical role in the future.(The 40 mm's are bofors single mounted guns, and the 155mm's are M114 howitzers). I mean I would give them the 240mm Howitzer M1 or the oto melara 76mm full-auto naval artillery guns or even better: the US Navy's 155mm electromagnetic railgun system, but I can't do that, or can I…**

 **But anyway guys I hope you enjoyed this, and I'll see you all in the next one :)**


	12. Chapter 11:Into the Rabbit Hole

**Hey guys welcome back.**

 **Sorry for taking a long time to update the story. How long has it been, I think almost a month probably. I was busy doing other things to try and freshen up my idea generator for the story. If grinding counted as freshening up my idea generator.**

 **Also long chapter ahead, the longest one I made so far.**

 **Anyway, enough chit chat, and I hope you guys enjoy this chapter. :)**

* * *

Dawn break. Aloy opened her eyes, got up, and stretched. She looked behind her, and saw that Jack was still dead asleep. Aloy grinned evilly, and thought of a wake up call for him.

1 minute later.

Jack was still sleeping, he was currently enjoying the best dream he's had in awhile. That was cut short when cold water was poured over him. He swiftly got up, and looked around, he saw Aloy already up, fully geared, and holding an empty bucket.

"Good morning Jack, how was your sleep?" She asked with a smile.

"Was good until you ruined it," He replied, "what the hell was that for?"

"Oh Jack, you have no idea how fun it is just to mess with you," she said with an evil grin, "now come on, get up, we still have a lot of work to do."

Jack sighed, "Alright give me a minute," Jack got up, put on his gear, and went out.

The village people offered them breakfast before they left which they took, they needed the energy. After that they discussed their plan. They originally planned on using the VTOL, but Jack discovered that the damage it took against the corrupted stormbird attack was to critical; the VTOL's on board computer failed to read it due to damage over time inside that hardened aircraft shelter over the years. Jack could repair it, but that means burning time they don't decided to leave the VTOL at the village and just go on foot, besides they could see things better, and they could be stealthier. They also confronted Erin to help them since he knows what's going on in the ruins.

"It's a bad idea to go through the surface because it's crawling with machines that'll tear you guys apart, but there are a bunch of tunnels you could use to get past them," Erin said. "There's an entrance to the tunnels across the river; I've got some friends who can help you across. Follow me."

The two followed him until the reached the river banks. There was a pier with a boat docked to it with a guy inside. They went over to the boat, and the guy stood and greeted them.

"These two are friendly, they need to get across the river," Erin told him.

"Ok, hello my name is Jon, and i'm the boatman," He greeted the the two.

"Hi," Aloy replied.

"Hey," Jack replied.

"Alright then, everybody hop in, and lets go," Erin said.

They all boarded the boat, and they were on their way. After that Erin realized something.

"Oh um, I forgot to tell you guys something," He said.

"What is it?" Jack asked.

Erin grabbed a small bag he had, and gave it to them. Inside were a bunch of flares, and a flare gun with seven extra shots.

"What are these for?" Jack asked, confused.

"Remember the things I told you about last night, the ones that go out of the ruins?"

"Yeah."  
"Well those things are called _shadow stalkers,_ and they only operate in the dark, and they hate bright lights. They stay in the ruins during day time, and wait until nighttime when it's dark to go hunting. And in this case, those tunnels you will go through will be filled with them. A few years back we went on an expedition to check those tunnels, no one wanted to check it out before, said they saw some weird things just looking through the entrance. So some guys and me decided to investigate especially with our new weapons. We also used to have a machine gunner with us, his name was Danny he was just a kid. At the time of course we didn't know about the shadow stalkers. They rounded us up, and tried to pin us down, danny held them off while we ran for it, we tried to get him, but the shadow stalkers were already overwhelming us. Now make sure you use those flares correctly, I don't want what happened to danny happen to you guys," Erin explained. He spent the rest of the time describing the shadow stalker before Jack and Aloy ended the conversation. They reached the other side of the river, and Jon docked the boat on the pier

"C'mon follow me," Erin said. They followed him off the boat, and into the ruins. They were only at the small parts of the ruins not the big parts. Erin led them to an entrance of the old subway system in DC.

"Alright this is my stop, now remember, the shadow stalkers have some sort of night vision, but they can only track moving objects, so if you see one or think one is near you stop moving and don't make a sound until you think it's gone, and if there's one shadow stalkers there may be a lot nearby and it may not like bright light, but once you shine the light it will call more of its friends to hunt you down once the light dies, and don't even try to kill one cause - as I said - it will just call more of its friends" Erin explained.

"Okay, thanks for the help Erin, we'll make sure to be careful down there," Jack said.

"You better, I gotta go now, bye," Erin said, and walked away while Jack and Aloy waved him goodbye.

"Do you know how to use this?" Jack asked Aloy showing her the flare gun.

"No," She replied.

"It's simple, just point and pull the trigger, to reload just pull this up, the spent shell will eject, you load another shell, and you're good to go," Jack explained.

"Okay, thanks," Aloy said, and took the flare gun.

"Right, now this is whats gonna happen: Erin said that those things doesn't like light, but I have a feeling that they might try to come near us even though we have lights all around us, but luckily I have something with me that'll help me see in the dark but I only have one though," Jack said.

"So what are we gonna do?"

"I don't know just hold my arm or something; just stay close to me."  
"Ok got it."

"Another thing, i'm gonna tap on you to signal you if I see something," Jack said. He spent the next two minutes explaining to Aloy the signals he's gonna give her like if they have to stop or turn around.

"Got it," She said.

"Alright let's go."

They descended down into the old subway entrance. Once they got down at the bottom, there was light coming down from the entrance but it only illuminated some parts of the area. Jack saw the train tracks which led to the tunnels.

"Hey, shoot a flare down the tunnel," Jack told Aloy.

Aloy shot a flare down the tunnel as told, and it illuminated it a little bit which gave Jack his bearings. He opened his bag and took out an old night vision sight that only has one eye, the battery wasn't full so Jack has to maximize it as much as possible. He put it on,and signaled Aloy to grab his hand.

"Alright let's go," Jack said, and took Aloys wrist and off they go into the darkness.

They felt like they've been walking for hours but in reality it's only been half an hour. They encountered dead ends as they went, and still no way out.

Jack has been to DC before, and he's used the subway, but just like everyone else he never paid attention to the turns and stops of the subway. And he doesn't have a map.

They continued walking still not finding a way out, and thankfully -for now- not encountering a shadow stalker. Jack could see, but everything was in the shade of green and black, and it didn't make him see very far. While Aloy can't see anything at all.

They walked slowly but efficiently not to waste time, and to not make a sound.

As they continued walking in the dark Jack saw something in the distance. When they got closer he discovered that it was a human skeleton with clothes on, and next to it was a lewis gun. The hands were still attached to the grip of the gun. This was what's left of Danny.

 _They must be close,_ Jack thought. He gave Aloy a series of taps warning her that the shadow stalkers must be close. He knelt down, picked up the lewis gun, and slung it to his backpack before they continued.

A few more minutes of walking later Jack heard something, so did Aloy. They stopped, and listened. They heard footsteps coming towards them, but it wasn't like rushing towards them only coming closer and closer. After what seemed like forever they discovered what it was, it was a shadow stalker. It looked like an ordinary stalker, but without the machine that makes it invisible, and it's slightly smaller. Another thing is that it only has one eye which glows a dark red colour, and large sharp teeth in its mouth area.

It moved closer to them, and Jack and Aloy froze completely while remaining dead silent. Aloy couldn't see it due to the dark which scared her. She wouldn't have gotten scared if she could see it, but an enemy she couldn't see was a different story. Just think about it: an enemy that wants to kill you, and you can't see it. Worse their in a tunnel underground so no one would hear them die a slow and horrible death, and Aloy was more used to big open spaces so she can maneuver to her opponent's weak spots and take them out from there. The regular stalker was bad enough, but this stalker while they are underground in a small space, it was not a pleasant experience.

Aloy held onto Jack's arm, doing her best not to freak out, while Jack gripped his rifle tighter and tighter as the shadow stalker came closer.

It approached until it stopped right next to them and turn its head to look at them. It kept its head directly focused onto them like it was scanning them before making a sound, and continuing to its present course.

Jack waited until he couldn't see it, and couldn't hear its footsteps anymore. He signaled to Aloy that the coast was clear, and they continued.

After another half hour later they finally reached the exit. They both ran out of the tunnels, and up to the surface to see the sun again. They felt like they've been down there for days even though it's only been a few hours. The sun shining down onto them felt really good. They wanted to just relax there at that very spot, but if they don't get to where they have to go then they were better off back down those tunnels, so they kept moving.

Jack checked his map, and saw that they were closing in on the white house. A few minutes later they reached it. They entered the ruins of what 'was' the residence of the president of the United States of America; when there was a United States of America. They searched the ruins and found the elevator, which was the only way down to the bunker. There was an access panel which required codes so that it could call the elevator. Jack took out his gear, and began the long process of hacking it. Over time most of the layers of defence may have been corrupted or destroyed so it would be easier to hack. While Jack was doing that Aloy decided to explore the ruins a little bit.

Aloy was looking around the oval office, searching the desk, drawers, and bookshelves and examining the paintings, and surroundings. She examined an old painting at side of the room. It was a painting of a city street with the american flag hanging from building walls. Despite being damaged over the centuries it was still in good shape. Aloy gently put her hand on the painting to further examine it when it snapped off the wall, and fall to the ground. Behind the painting was what appeared to be a safe. Aloy quickly figured out what it was, and tried to open it. She took her spear, and jammed the pointed end onto the small spaces on the side of the safe, then tugged it to the side. The safe door flew open, and Aloy looked inside. She found a notebook which was in good shape, and a keycard. Aloy realized what it was, grabbed them, and ran over to Jack.

Speaking Jack he feels like blowing up something at the moment. The past ten minutes he was sitting there trying to crack the access panel all ended up in failure, he knew that it was going to be a huge pain in the ass but he still can't help getting angry. If he kept this going then he'll lose it, and try to blast open the door instead and he won't care if it means nuking everything.

While Jack was on the verge of losing his shit, Aloy came back with the notebook, and keycard. She ran up to Jack, and stopped next to him.

"Jack," She said.

"What is it?" He asked, frustrated.

"Maybe this'll work," She said holding out the keycard, and notebook. Jack looked up at Aloy and took the items, and examined them.

"Oh, um, yeah this'll work," Jack awkwardly said. He put the keycard in, and flipped the pages for the elevator access codes. He also flipped through the pages to make sure that the nuclear override codes weren't in there so that they don't waste time. _Damnit it's not in here,_ He thought. He found the elevator codes though, it was good enough. He inputted the codes, and the elevator came, and the doors opened.

The two entered the elevator, and Jack pressed the button going to the bunker and the doors closed and they were on their way down.

The elevator slowly went down, and the two stood there facing the elevator door. There was an ambient elevator music playing as they descended.

The elevator stopped and pinged indicating that they have made it to the bottom level. The door opened, and it wasn't a pleasant sight. It was pitch black again from the exit to down the hallway. Jack put on his night vision sight, but as soon as he turned it on the battery died. He cussed, and removed the sight from his head. Fortunately he still has a bag of flares that he could put into good use. He took one flare out, and lit it up before they started to navigate through the hallways.

They burned through half of the flares in the bag before they got to the last hallway they have to navigate through. Jack expected for the presidential bunker to be only a huge square room twenty storeys underground, not a maze of rooms and hallways. Well it wasn't going to matter because they were already closing in on the target.

They reached the end of the hallway, and Jack opened the door, and at the other side was a huge dark room.

"The computer must be in here let's go," Jack said, before continuing only to be stopped by Aloy.

"Wait," She whispered.

"What is it?"

Aloy feels like they aren't alone down here. She leaned forward to get a better view, she could see the light coming from the flare reflecting off of something. They looked like eyes, and a lot of them. She knew exactly what they were, she was going to inform Jack but he already found out.

"Shadow stalkers," Jack said.

"A lot of them," Aloy said.

They must've gone through the old tunnels that connect from the surface to the bunker.

Jack shone his light onto one, and it appeared to be laying on the ground, sleeping or deactivated, but not dead. The rest may have been in the same state too. Jack lit another flare, and threw it across the room. It didn't make a loud noise when it landed. He could see the computer, it's only a few meters away, but they have a to cross a minefield of sleeping shadow stalkers.

"Okay, this is what gonna happen, we're gonna cross to get to the computer, but we're gonna have to be really quiet," Jack told Aloy.

"Alright," She replied.

Before they crossed Jack carefully put a C4 charge onto the doorway entrance; incase they wake up the shadow stalkers the C4 will slow the down before they ran for it.

They quietly, and carefully made slow-light steps to the computer. As they walked Jack stepped on a piece of broken glass which made a cracking a noise, one of the shadow stalkers started making grunting noises but didn't wake up, so they continued. After what seemed like an eternity of crossing a minefield of deadly sleeping machines they made it to the computer. Jack knelt down, and scanned the computer, and found the codes were still there.

"Bingo," He whispered. He plugged in a flash drive to a USB port, and began downloading it. After a few minutes the download finished, and Jack grabbed the USB.

"Okay let's get out of here," Jack whispered to Aloy. As he got up, he didn't notice that something was behind him, and he knocked it over. It landed with a loud thud that echoed throughout the room. And at that very moment their flares died, and they were back in the darkness. The then saw the room fill with red glowing lights pointing straight towards them.

Jack took an incendiary grenade from his belt, he pulled the pin, and threw it to the side of the room. The grenade detonated, and made a giant bright ball of flames. The shadow stalkers rushed to the other side of the room, and Jack and Aloy ran for it.

"Come on let's go!" Jack helped Aloy up, and they ran for it.

The shadow stalkers tried to follow them, but Jack detonated the C4. They kept running, and didn't stop. More shadow stalkers started following them from the rooms. Jack dropped another incendiary grenade to stop one horde only for another one to go for them.

Jack tripped, and Aloy helped him up.

"You alright?" She asked, but she also saw a shadow stalker heading straight for them. She grabbed the lewis gun from Jack's backpack, and began to shoot the machines.

"Wow," Jack said. "We gotta go."

They made it back to the elevator, and Jack pressed the button. They held them off until the elevator came back. Aloy kept the lewis gun firing until she ran out of ammo.

"I'm out," She said, dropped the lewis gun, and switched to her bow, and kept firing.

Jack's rifle was close to overheating before the elevator doors opened. Aloy went in first, and

Jack picked up the lewis gun, and went inside the elevator.

"You still have the RPG right?" Jack asked.

"Yeah," Aloy replied.

"Well shoot them!"

Aloy unslung the RPG, got out of cover, and fired it down the hallway. The recoil sent her back, but only a little. The blast made the elevator door automatically close, and they were heading back up the surface.

The two relaxed, while taking deep breaths due to exhaustion. Jack took out his canteen of water, and drank from it.

"Nice work on that lewis gun," Jack complemented Aloy.

"Thanks," She replied.

"Want a drink?"

Aloy took the canteen from Jack, and took two huge gulps.

"Well this has been a hell of a morning, don't you think?" Aloy asked Jack.

Jack chuckled, "Damn right," He replied. "That bunker we just been in, is only the first one, there's another one we have to get to."

"Is it going to be filled with shadow stalkers too?" Aloy asked.

"Nah, I don't think so, there aren't any tunnels for them to crawl through."

"What makes you so sure?"

"I'm not, I just don't think there aren't any down there," Jack clarified.

"Well that's a relief," Aloy said sarcastically.

The elevator door opened, and they were back on the surface. They got out of the white house, and Jack checked his map.

"So, where now?" Aloy asked.

"Hmm, this way," Jack said, and they were on their way.

Back at sunfall Sylens was watching from his satellite currently 1000 miles above the two.

"Hmm, looks likes the duo survived the stormbird and glinthawk swarm, but let's see if they survive what I have planned for them," He said evilly.

An hour later they were already closing in on the ruins of the pentagon. Jack checked the time till the launch, and saw that they only eighty-five minutes left.

They entered the ruins, and began to look for the elevator. They found shortly after entering, and Jack pressed the call button. The elevator doors opened, but the elevator wasn't there. Jack looked up the shaft, and saw that the elevator was stuck at the upper floors.

"Well, looks like we're going to have to rappel down," Jack said. They tied their rappelling ropes onto a pillar, and dropped the ropes down into the shaft. They grabbed on, and began to descend down the shaft.

As they were going down, whatever was holding the elevator in place deactivated, and began to rapidly descend.

"Hey do you hear that?" Aloy asked.

Jack listened in closely, and knew exactly what it was.

"Come on, we gotta get down now!" Jack said.

They picked up the pace in descending down the shaft.

"What is it?" Aloy asked.

"Elevator!" Jack pointed up, and Aloy it. She then started to pick up the pace too.

Jack was the first one to get down to the floor they have to get to, he opened the door, and got in.

"Come on Aloy!" He said.

"I'm going as fast as I can!" Aloy replied.

As she was descending, the falling elevator snapped her line, and she started to fall too. But Jack managed to catch her, and pull her in just in time before the elevator fell to their position, and continue falling down the shaft. Jack got up, and helped Aloy up. He walked up to the shaft, and looked down.

"Well there goes our ride," Jack said. "Let's go, we don't have much time left."

They picked up themselves, and headed down the hallway. The hallways were illuminated this time so they can see, and they didn't have to worry about any shadow stalkers.

They were walking down the hallway, when they found the launch room.

"Alright here we are," Jack said. He saw the computer at the side of the room, and went over to it. He started it up, and the screen came to life showing the the nuclear launch platforms around the world all arming up, and preparing for launch; the top left of the screen showed that only five minutes was left before the launch. Jack brought up the deactivation screen, and flashed the codes. The codes were: WTAZF3399SD25. Jack began to input the codes.

"W-T-A-Z-F-3-3-9-" That's all he could input before the screen went dark. "Looks like the power was cut from the screen, I can fix it, just give me a minute."

Jack went outside to a panel that connected the main power line to the computer. He opened it up, and started to repair it. Aloy was only sitting on a chair watching, once Jack was finished doing his thing they can now go, and get Sylens. Jack finished reconnecting the wires, and closed the panel.

"Is the screen working again?" Jack asked from down the hall. As soon as he said that the screen lit up.

"Yeah, it's good now," Aloy replied.

Jack then started to walk back to the room, but then then emergency system protocol lit up, and the blast doors were closed before Jack could get back in.'

"JACK!" Aloy called out. They both tried prying the doors open with their bare hands, but it was no use. Then suddenly there was a voice that appeared in their focus network.

"Having fun the two of you?" Sylens asked.

"Sylens?" Aloy said.

"Sylens you son of a bitch!" Jack said. "Open this door, I swear to God if you blow the world up, I WILL FIND YOU!"

"Hey, bad language is not going to fix any of this," Sylens said.

"Sylens please, if you do this, you'll kill everything," Aloy said.

"Oh Aloy, weren't you listening to anything I told you before, this is the plan."  
Aloy could feel the anger bubbling inside of her.

"You bastard!"

"Why are you calling me that, by keeping you inside that room, I am protecting you."

"What about Jack, what about every innocent person out there?"

"I'm afraid their fate is sealed." Sylens plainly said.

Jack tried hacking the door control panel, but he doesn't have enough time. Time to launch in two minutes.

"Aloy listen to me," Jack said. "Ignore everything he says, just listen to me."

"Okay," She replied.

"You have to input the deactivation codes into the computer or everyone is gonna die," Jack said.

"But I don't know the codes."

"It's okay, I'll tell you the codes you just type them in."

"Alright." Aloy went over to the computer, and put her hands over the keyboard. "I'm at the computer."

"Alright, just type it in ok?"

"Ok."

Jack started to say the first few digits of the code while Aloy typed it down.

"Hey, I'm still talking to the both of you," Sylens said.

"Just keep ignoring him, Aloy. 9-9-S-D-2," Jack said.

"9-9-S-D-2," She repeated, and typed it in.

"You know what, you two have been attached for way too long. Let me separate you two so you can hear me out," Sylens said, and began to jam their focus network.

"A...Aloy!" Jack said, then static.

"Jack? JACK!" She called out.

"Aloy? ALOY? Goddammit," Jack said, removed his focus, and tried to hack open the door.

"Now that the two of you are separated, lets talk. How was your day," Sylens said.

"What did you do to Jack?" Aloy asked.

"Nothing, I just jammed the focus network so you can't talk to each other. He's not dead, well at least not now," Sylens said.

 _Warning: Nuclear launch in 1 minute. Please seek shelter immediately,_ The automated voice of the computer said.

"Right," Aloy said to herself.

Aloy removed her focus, to keep Sylens away, and turned to the computer. There was only one blank space left. She doesn't the last digit, so she has to guess. But there were so many buttons with a different symbol on each one. She only has one shot.

"Let's try 5," She typed it in, and pressed enter.

The computer began processing it then…

 _Codes accepted, deactivating all nuclear launch sites, have a nice day,_ The automated voice said. Every red dot on earth turned green.

Jack finished hacking the door panel, and it opened, and he ran in.

"What happened?" He asked sternly while Aloy had a smile on her face.

"I got, I deactivated the nukes," Aloy said.

Jack looked to the screen, and saw that the red dots were green, and the word 'deactivated' covered most of the screen.

"Oh thank god," Jack said. Not thinking, they then both ran up to each other, and gave each other a hug. The hug lasted for only a few seconds before they realized what they were doing. The two of them blushed simultaneously, and they both pulled away from each other.

There was a brief moment of awkwardness…

"So um, uh, good job in figuring out the last digit of code," Jack said.

"Thanks, and I forgot to mention this earlier, but thanks to you too, for pulling me out of the shaft," Aloy said.

"No problem," Jack said.

"Why did you do it anyway?"

"Well for one thing, I need someone to carry my stuff," Jack sarcastically said, and Aloy playfully punched him on the shoulder.

They were interrupted by Sylens hijacking their focus network again.

"Well it seems that Aloy managed to guess the final digit of code. Well done Aloy," He said.

"Well newsflash asshole, the bombs have been deactivated, you failed," Jack said.

Sylens chuckled. "You really think that was my only plan? This is only the beginning."

"What's your plan then?" Aloy asked.

"The both of you will learn soon enough," Sylens said before patching off.

"What does he mean?" Aloy asked Jack.

"I don't know, but I have a feeling we should get back to the homeland," Jack said.

"Yeah, we should," Aloy said, and they both left.

Once they reached the surface they plotted the route they'll be taking back to the village. There was no way in hell they will try to go through the subway again, so they override a couple of chargers, and went around the city - to avoid the machines - to the village.

They stopped at the outskirts of the village, and dismounted from their mounts, and walked back to the village. When they walked through the gate Erin saw them, and greeted them.

"Welcome back, good to you two are still in one piece," He said. "Did you get to where you needed to go?"

"Yeah," Jack said. "We also found something else along the way."

"What is it?"

Jack grabbed the lewis gun from his back, and gave it to Erin.

"I'm sure Danny would've wanted you to have it," Jack said.

"Yeah, thank you, both of you," Erin said.

"It's no problem."

"Well, are the two of you hungry? We made dinner for you guys."

"In fact we are, it's been a long day, and we haven't eaten anything yet," Aloy said.

"Well c'mon then," Erin waved them to follow him.

They ate in front of a campfire, while they told jokes and stories. After that Jack and Aloy packed up, and got ready to leave. Jack managed to repair the damage on the VTOL, and load their stuff inside.

"Thank you again for helping us out," Jack told Erin.

"Again, no problem," Erin said. "If you guys ever need help again, you can come to me, my men and I will help you."

"Alright, I got you," Jack said.

Erin nodded, and Jack entered the VTOL, and started it up. The engines came back to life, and Jack plotted the course back to homelands. The sun has already set, and the moon started to come up. The VTOL climbed above the clouds, and Aloy could see the moonlight reflecting off of the clouds. It was a hell of a sight.

About an hour later, Jack began to make the VTOL descend. As they descended they could a faint glow of orange thats coming from the ground. Once they got nearer to the ground they could see that it was fire, and a a lot of it. There were building on fire, and people running around. They were over the sacred lands; they were watching a raid by the new world order taking place. There were burning buildings, men fighting, and even corrupted machines supporting the attacking forces.

There were group of braves scattered around the area trying to fight off the attackers.

"I'll steer the aircraft, while you take control of the cannon," Jack said, and gave the cannon controls to Aloy.

"Got it," She replied.

* * *

 **That's all for now folks, and thank you for reading this chapter of my story. It means a lot really.**

 **Also the rate of me uploading a new chapter will be decreased because my summer break is ending, and school is going to start again, and I need to keep my head focused on what is important. Unlike the Americans who are probably at the end point of their school year and is going to start enjoying their summer break (lucky bastards). I think they are on their finals already, and are just wrapping things up. So if you are an american, then I wish you good luck if you're taking your finals; I hope you get a good grade so your parents don't scream at you, and if you're already having your summer break then stay safe out there. Also leave a review down below, your feedback can make this story better.**

 **Anyway that's all for now, and I'll see you all at the next one. :)**


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